Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY

An "important, deeply affecting--and regrettably relevant" (New York Times) chronicle of a sinister idea of freedom: white Americans' freedom to oppress others and their fight against the government that got in their way.

American freedom is typically associated with the fight of the oppressed for a better world. But for centuries, whenever the federal government intervened on behalf of nonwhite people, many white Americans fought back in the name of freedom--their freedom to dominate others.

In Freedom's Dominion, historian Jefferson Cowie traces this complex saga by focusing on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace. In a land shaped by settler colonialism and chattel slavery, white people weaponized freedom to seize Native lands, champion secession, overthrow Reconstruction, question the New Deal, and fight against the civil rights movement. A riveting history of the long-running clash between white people and federal authority, this book radically shifts our understanding of what freedom means in America.

Author: Jefferson Cowie
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 11/22/2022
Pages: 512
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.20w x 2.50d
ISBN: 9781541672802
Award: Pulitzer Prize - Winner

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 09/05/2022
Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2022

About the Author
Jefferson Cowie holds the James G. Stahlman chair in history at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of three books, including Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, and his work has appeared in numerous outlets including Time, the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and Politico. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.