Jefferson Cowie on the history of freedom and federal power in America

What is freedom? And what happens when one person’s approach to freedom infringes on another person’s civil liberties?

These are the central questions in Jefferson Cowie’s Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power. In this work, Cowie zeroes in on Barbour County, Alabama, and its relationship with federal power and freedom, from the expulsion of local indigenous people to the civil rights movement.

In this episode, Jefferson Cowie joins us to dig into how different notions of freedom have shaped American history and our relationships with the federal government. We’ll also reflect on what that means for us in our current political climate.

But first, it’s time for @ Us! with our digital lead, Anna Gallegos-Cannon.

Guests: 

• Jefferson Cowie, James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University