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As our centennial series continues, Jefferson Cowie, historian at Vanderbilt University and the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022), reviews the history of white Americans fighting the federal government over civil rights legislation and more.
In this special episode, Don Wildman is joined by experts Jonathan Alter and Jefferson Cowie to delve into the remarkable life of the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, who has died at the age of 100.Carter, who served in office from 1977 to 1981, is the longest-lived president.From his early days in rural Georgia, to a hostage crisis which cost him his second term, and his extensive humanitarian efforts post-presidency; hear about the pivotal moments and challenges in Carter's life.Edited by Tomos Delargy. Produced by Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 MediaAmerican History Hit is a History Hit podcast.
In this episode of Locust Radio, Adam Turl interviews R. Faze, author of the My Body series published in Locust Review. This is part of an ongoing series of interviews with Locust members and collaborators on contemporary artistic strategies. R. Faze's My Body series in Locust Review: R. Faze, “I Live an Hour from My Body,” Locust Review 4 (2021) R. Faze, “My Body Got a New Job,” Locust Review 5 (2021) R. Faze, “My Body Planned Something,” Locust Review 6 (2021) R. Faze, “My Body, Interrogated,” Locust Review 7 (2022) R. Faze, “My Body's Long Term Plan,” Locust Review 8 (2022) R. Faze, “My By Body's Revenge Plan,” Locust Review 9 (2022) R. Faze, “My Body Found a Portal to Another Dimension,” Locust Review 10 (2023) R. Faze, “My Body's Claims, Verified,” Locust Review 11 (2024) Some other writers, artists, texts and artworks discussed: Mikhail Bahktin, Rabelais and His World (1984); Bertolt Brecht; Raymond Chandler; Jefferson Cowie, Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working-Class (2010); Rene Descartes; W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903); Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? (2009); Karl Marx, The Philosophic and Economic Manuscripts (1844); Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (1993); Pablo Picasso and Cubism; Edgar Allan Poe, “William Wilson” (1839); Francois Rabalais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (1564); Don Siegal, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956); Sister Wife Sex Strike, “From the River to the Sea (2024); Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) Locust Radio hosts include Tish Turl, Laura Fair-Schulz, and Adam Turl. Locust Radio is produced by Alexander Billet, Adam Turl, and Omnia Sol. Opening music and sound elements by Omnia Sol and Adam Turl.
For a long time, it seemed like not much happened in the 1970s. Today it seems like so much of what's happening can be traced back to those same years. The 1970s was a pivotal decade in American history. In a ten-year span, the United States admitted defeat in Vietnam, saw a President (and Vice President) resign in shame, and came face to face with its leaders' abuse of power at home and abroad. At the same time, American citizens directly experienced a score of problems, including “stagflation,” an energy crisis, and the consequences of environmental devastation. Yet in this era of deconstruction and disappointment, the political coalitions than defined the US from the 1980s until (today/recently?) were forged. In this episode, Jefferson Cowie joins us to talk about his book Stayin Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working and what happened in the decade in which everything now seems to have happened. Dr. Jefferson Cowie is James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University and the author of multiple award-winning books, including Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2023. You can hear him discuss Freedom's Dominion in episode #255, and check out his multiple appearances on the show by searching You can find out more about Jefferson Cowie and his work at his website by clicking here. This is a rebroadcast of episode #115, which originally aired on December 18, 2017. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.
First celebrated in the U.S. in the late 1800s, Labor Day honors the social and economic achievements of workers across the country. Many people recognize Labor Day as the end of summer, but few know the history behind the holiday. In this unique episode of Get Hired, historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jefferson Cowie joins Andrew to take listeners on an immersive journey through the history of organized labor in America. Follow Andrew Seaman on LinkedIn by clicking here. Follow Jefferson Cowie on LinkedIn by clicking here.
Sam interviews historian Dr. Jefferson Cowie, author of Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance (winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize). Jeff serves as the James G. Stahlman Chair in the Department of History at Vanderbilt University. He was recently honored with a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship - in part, in anticipation of his upcoming project, tentatively titled Crosswinds of a Common History. You can find more of Jeff's writing including information on his other three books here. Find out more about Refuse Fascism and get involved at RefuseFascism.org. We're still on Twitter (@RefuseFascism) and other social platforms including Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky. Plus, Sam is on TikTok, check out @samgoldmanrf. You can also send your comments to samanthagoldman@refusefascism.org or @SamBGoldman. Record a voice message for the show here. Connect with the movement at RefuseFascism.org and support: · paypal.me/refusefascism · donate.refusefascism.org · http://patreon.com/RefuseFascism · Venmo: Refuse-Fascism · Cashapp: $RefuseFascism Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown Mentioned in the episode: The ‘Unified Reich' Scandal is a Feature Not a Bug of Trump's Brand of American Fascism by Annika Brockschmidt for Religion Dispatches Refuse Fascism episode 181: The Evangelical Prophets Anointing Trump with Matthew D. Taylor Straight White American Jesus Special Episode: Justice Alito Let's His Appeal to Heaven Flag Fly The Supreme Court's new voting rights decision is a love letter to gerrymandering by Ian Millhiser for Vox Refuse Fascism episode 197: Choices: A Post-Roe Abortion Rights Manifesto Fascism in America? (Part 1 of a deep dive into the "fascism debate") by Thomas Zimmer The Anti-Liberal Left Has a Fascism Problem (Part 2 of a deep dive into the "fascism debate") by Thomas Zimmer --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/refuse-fascism/message
Jefferson Cowie's book Freedom's Dominion gives the history of white Americans fighting for the freedom to dominate others and won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for History. In Eufaula, Alabama, he meets with Kelly Lytle Hernandez, history professor at the University of California Los Angeles.
Al zeggen we het zelf: een prachtige aflevering met onze gast, Pirmin Olde Weghuis, over Alabama, en typische Amerikaanse thema's. Aan de hand van het fantastische boek 'Freedom's Dominion' van Jefferson Cowie, bespreken we wat de ware betekenis is van 'vrijheid' in Amerika, en de immer moeizame verhouding tussen lokale overheden en de federale overheid. Vragen, suggesties? Stuur een bericht naar podcast@manusama.com of vind ons op Twitter of Threads.
The famous image of a victorious Harry Truman holding up a newspaper headlined “Dewey defeats Truman” is clear evidence that the 1948 Presidential election did not turn out the way many people had expected. That April, Truman's approval rating had sunk to 37%, causing even many in his party to consider dumping him from the ballot. That summer, a rebellion by southern Democrats led by South Carolina segregationist Strom Thurmond promised to deny Truman electoral votes that his Democratic predecessors could have counted on for a century. Yet, despite all this, Truman didn't just win, he won big- finishing 4.5 points and 114 electoral votes ahead of Dewey. How did Truman manage to turn it all around in six months? Who was Thomas E. Dewey and why couldn't he deliver a win with the wind blowing so hard at his back? And what did southern democrats hope they'd get by giving 39 electoral votes to Strom Thurmond even when he had no chance of winning the national election? Let's find out. In the fourth installment of our Third Party Elections Series, we talk the election of 1948 w/ Jefferson Cowie. Dr. Jefferson Cowie is James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. His most recent book, Freedom's Dominion, A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books) was awarded the 20203 Pulitzer Prize in History. You can hear Jeff discussing Freedom's Dominion in RTN #255 and his other episodes on the 1970s (#115) and The New Deal and its Legacy (#24). This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
For this special weekend podcast - John interviews attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Colorado's 1st congressional district - Diana DeGette and Professor of History and the Director of Economics and History Major at Vanderbilt University - author and historian - Jefferson Cowie.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Jefferson Cowie holds the James G. Stahlman chair in history at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of several books, including Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, and his latest, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History, 2023). The post The Meaning of Freedom: A History of White Resistance to Federal Power appeared first on KPFA.
In this week's episode of Conversations with Kenyatta, Kenyatta D. Berry, author of The Family Tree Toolkit and host of PBS' Genealogy Roadshow is joined by Pulitzer Prize Winner, author, and historian, Dr. Jefferson Cowie. The two discuss his latest book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History, his research, and so much more.ABOUT DR. JEFFERSON COWIE (as taken from Vanderbilt.edu) Jefferson Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, race, and labor shape American politics and culture. His latest book, Freedom's Dominion, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2023.Based on one county's history, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power tells the dramatic tale of generations of local fights against the federal government that prop up a particular version of American freedom: the freedom to oppress others. Advance praise calls it "magisterial," written with "eloquence and with brilliance," and Cowie's "most extraordinary book yet."The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics was released in early 2016 and attempts to reinterpret a wide swath of American political history in the twentieth century. The Washington Post‘s E.J. Dionne Jr. called it “one of the year's most important political books."Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, draws together labor, politics, and popular culture into a vibrant narrative about the decline of class in American political culture. It received a number of “best book” awards, including the 2011 Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History and the Merle Curti Award for the Best Book in Social and Intellectual History. Critics said, “Stayin' Alive will long stand as the finest and most sophisticated portrait of politics and culture in the American 1970s, and also as a model for how to talk about both political and cultural transformations without shortchanging either.”Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor charts the relocation of one firm through four different cities, two countries, and a great deal of social upheaval. It accounts for what made each community attractive for an industrial location and what changed to make the company relocate again. The book received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History.In addition to his scholarship, Cowie's essays and opinion pieces have also appeared in the New York Times, TIME magazine, NPR Music, Foreign Affairs, Chronicle of Higher Ed, American Prospect, Politico, Democracy, The New Republic, Inside Higher Ed, Dissent, and other popular outlets. The recipient of several fellowships, including the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, the American Council of Learned Societies and Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Society for the Humanities at Cornell, and the Center for US-Mexican Studies at UC San Diego, he has also appeared in a variety of media outlets including CNN's The Seventies, C‐Span's Booknotes, NPR's Weekend Edition, as well as documentaries, podcasts, and radio broadcasts.The music for this episode, as always, is "Good Vibe" by Ketsa. We are dedicated to exploring and discussing various aspects of genealogy, history, culture, and social issues. We aim to shed light on untold stories and perspectives that enrich our understanding of the world. **Please note that some links in our show notes may contain affiliate links, on which Kenyatta receives a small commission.
Jefferson Cowie is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and noted writer. He joins Tavis to talk about his latest book “Freedom's Dominion” which focuses on generations of local fights against the federal government that prop up a particular version of American freedom: the freedom to oppress others.
What do we mean when we talk about freedom? Jefferson Cowie, a professor of history at Vanderbilt University, addressed this question in his monumental work Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power, which won this year's Pulitzer Prize for History. The book focuses on Southern white resistance to federal authority — in the name of freedom — over two centuries in Barbour County in southeastern Alabama (particularly in its largest town, Eufaula). The tale begins in the early nineteenth century with the efforts by whites to illegally seize and settle lands retained by the Muscogee Creek Nation — a conflict that, ironically, forced the Creeks to rely for protection on federal forces sent by President Andrew Jackson, despite his notorious hostility toward Native Americans. In the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, Barbour County whites resisted federal efforts to impose a biracial democracy, culminating in an 1874 massacre of African-American citizens attempting to vote. Jim Crow segregation prevailed in Barbour County for the better part of the following century. Elite rule and white supremacy were enforced not just through sharecropping and disenfranchisement but also through the brutal actions of convict leasing and lynching. Finally, with the coming of the civil rights era of the 1950s and ‘60s, Alabama Governor George Wallace – a Barbour County native – fought federal integration efforts and vowed to uphold “segregation forever!” Wallace's successes in Democratic presidential primaries — well beyond the South — in 1968 and 1972 showed the populist potency of combining racial resentment with opposition to federal power. In all of these episodes, Cowie demonstrates that white Alabamians defined freedom, not just in terms of individual liberty and civic participation, but also of their freedom to enslave and dominate. This latter conception of freedom frequently pitted local and state authorities against federal authority. In this podcast discussion, Cowie acknowledges that federal authority frequently fell far short of its stated aims and principles. Nevertheless, it was the only hope for those who sought political rights and equality before the law. Although the successes of the civil rights struggle in the American South have been uneven and partial, Cowie emphasizes that “you do everybody a disservice if you call a mixed bag a failure.”
President Biden made history on Tuesday when he joined members of the United Auto Workers union on a picket line outside Detroit as they strike for better pay and benefits from the Big Three automakers.Biden is walking a political tightrope. He wants a better contract for workers–and to win union members' votes in battleground states. He also wants to support carmakers as they transition to a future of electric vehicles.NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Micheline Maynard, the author of The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American Car Market, to understand how profitable the big carmakers are right now. And NPR's Michel Martin speaks with historian Jefferson Cowie about the unprecedented nature of Biden walking the picket lines.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
What is Americana music? Is it a genre? A community? A refuge? Twenty four years after the founding of the Americana Music Association and thirteen years since the first Grammy was awarded for Best Americana Album, defining “Americana” remains tricky. In our experience, the most common answer has been “you know it when you hear it.” However you define it, however, there is one thing everyone agrees on: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell are Americana legends. In this episode, recorded in front of a live audience in Nashville, TN, Emmylou and Rodney discuss their musical careers, how they became associated with Americana music, and what Americana means to them. Bob too shares his musical journey both before and after joining the Avett Brothers and the ways that genre (Americana and otherwise) has been part of that story. Bob, Gary and I would like to thank Paul Lohr at New Frontier Touring for helping us get such incredible guests for the show, Adam Botner at Riverside Revival for making both the live show and the audio on this episode sound so good, Austin Sawyer of Drumming Bird & Annie DiRusso for opening the show with their incredible talent, and everyone who came out to make this such a special night. We'd also like to give a special thanks to Jefferson Cowie for helping us prepare for the show. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. Live audio recording and mixing by Adam Botner.
While Labor Day in the U.S. is just the end of the summer for many, it was originally a crucial recognition of the work of labor organizers in the late 1800s. But organized labor didn't stop there. Labor Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jefferson Cowie, with books including Freedom's Dominion, Stayin' Alive, The Great Exception, and Capital Moves, Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, joins Andrew to walk through an abridged history of organized labor in America. Follow Andrew on LinkedIn to join the Get Hired community by clicking here. Read more about Dr. Cowie's work by clicking here.
The Kinks are one of the great rock bands of the 20th century and, like all artists, they reflect the times and places they've inhabited. In this episode, we speak with Mark Doyle about his excellent book The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached (Reaktion Books, 2020) and how the band, their origins, and Ray Davies' lyrics reveal a lot about both the real and imagined spaces of mid-20th Century England. Dr. Mark Doyle is Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University, where he specializes in the history of the British Empire. His research and teaching have won him numerous awards including the Stansky Book Prize (co-winner, 2017) and MTSU's Outstanding Teacher Award (2014-15). Ben once described him as “the Patton Oswalt of academic twitter,” so we recommend you follow him there at @DrMarkDoyle. We're excited to announce that Ben & Bob will be recording a live episode of RTN on the history of Americana music in Nashville on September 18, 2023 w/ guests Emmy Lou Harris, Rodney Crowell and Jefferson Cowie! Click here for tickets. Hope to see you there! This is a rebroadcast of the Road to Now #169, which originally aired on April 27, 2020. This version was fully re-cut and edited by Ben Sawyer.
The war between the US Army and the Native American confederation during the war of 1812 is a buried story in an often-overlooked event, yet its impact on the history of North America is profound. The leading figures on both sides of the war, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and US Army General William Henry Harrison, had come of age in the struggles over what is today called the Midwest United States, and both understood that losing the war would mean losing the future they imagined for their people. In this episode, Ben & Bob do a deep dive on the story behind that war with Peter Stark, author of the incredibly accessible new book, Gallop Toward The Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation (Random House, 2023). Peter Stark is an adventure and exploration writer and historian who was previously a correspondent for Outside magazine. His previous book, Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father, was named a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize in 2019. You can follow him on Instagram at @peterstark_adventure_historian. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher. We're excited to announce that Ben & Bob will be recording a live episode of RTN on the history of Americana music in Nashville on September 18, 2023 w/ guests Emmy Lou Harris, Rodney Crowell and Jefferson Cowie! Click here for tickets. Hope to see you there!
What do people mean when they talk about freedom? Throughout history, that question has often had dark answers, as Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jefferson Cowie explains in this episode. “Going all the way back to Athenian democracy is the freedom to enslave, the freedom to oppress, the freedom to dominate,” he tells Felicia and Michael. In his book, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power—which won the 2023 Pulitzer for History—Jefferson argues that this kind of freedom is deeply American, and explores the story of one place that exemplifies it: Barbour County, Alabama. Jefferson takes Michael and Felicia on a journey through the county's history, highlighting the treatment of the Muscogee Nation, political dynamics during the Reconstruction Era, and the political career of four-time Alabama governor and Barbour County native George Wallace. And later, Jefferson, Felicia, and Michael discuss the present-day fight over freedom, and the role historians have in this moment of political instability. Presented by the Roosevelt Institute, The New Republic, and PRX. Generous funding for this podcast was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Omidyar Network. Views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of its funders. You can find transcripts and related resources for every episode at howtosaveacountry.org.
Jefferson Cowie, author of Freedom's Dominion, talks about the differing perspectives of freedom throughout American history, from Thomas Jefferson to George Wallace, and how freedom was used to legitimize slavery, restrict voting rights, and defend lynching.
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
The Kansas Reflector's Sherman Smith reports on extremism in Topeka on theHeartland Labor Forum. Donna Murch and Todd Wolfson discuss Rutgers workers' industrial unionism strategy on The Dig. The Oscars are this Sunday; actor and podcaster Harold Phillips highlights some of the more labor-focused movies and TV shows on Labor Goes To The Movies. After a 2-year hiatus, we're very pleased to welcome back the Working History podcast, which spotlights the work of leading labor historians, activists, and practitioners focusing especially on the U.S. and global South; today we'll hear Jefferson Cowie on his new book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power. We wrap up this week's show with The Radical Songbook podcast and a 1996 song about striking hospital workers that's still very relevant today. Please help us build sonic solidarity by clicking on the share button below. Highlights from labor radio and podcast shows around the country, part of the national Labor Radio Podcast Network of shows focusing on working people's issues and concerns. #LaborRadioPod @AFLCIO @Heartland_Labor @thedigradio @SouthernLaborSA @oliviacpaschal @AndersonDavidM Edited/produced by Chris Garlock; social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.
Jefferson Cowie discusses his book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022), beginning with the book's origin story, and then tracing the use of "freedom" to dominate others in Barbour County, Alabama, from Indian Removal in the 1830s through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. This episode was produced for "Working History," the podcast of the Southern Labor Studies Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Jefferson Cowie discusses his book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022), beginning with the book's origin story, and then tracing the use of "freedom" to dominate others in Barbour County, Alabama, from Indian Removal in the 1830s through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. This episode was produced for "Working History," the podcast of the Southern Labor Studies Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
Jefferson Cowie discusses his book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022), beginning with the book's origin story, and then tracing the use of "freedom" to dominate others in Barbour County, Alabama, from Indian Removal in the 1830s through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. This episode was produced for "Working History," the podcast of the Southern Labor Studies Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies
Jefferson Cowie discusses his book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022), beginning with the book's origin story, and then tracing the use of "freedom" to dominate others in Barbour County, Alabama, from Indian Removal in the 1830s through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. This episode was produced for "Working History," the podcast of the Southern Labor Studies Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law
Jefferson Cowie discusses his book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022), beginning with the book's origin story, and then tracing the use of "freedom" to dominate others in Barbour County, Alabama, from Indian Removal in the 1830s through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. This episode was produced for "Working History," the podcast of the Southern Labor Studies Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-south
Jefferson Cowie discusses his book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022), beginning with the book's origin story, and then tracing the use of "freedom" to dominate others in Barbour County, Alabama, from Indian Removal in the 1830s through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. This episode was produced for "Working History," the podcast of the Southern Labor Studies Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jefferson Cowie discusses his book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power, beginning with the book's origin story, and then tracing the use of "freedom" to dominate others in Barbour County, Alabama, from Indian Removal in the 1830s through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s Find information about the book at the publisher's page. https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/jefferson-cowie/freedoms-dominion/9781541672819/ Find the New York Times review of the book. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/books/review/freedoms-dominion-jefferson-cowie.html
In part three of their Death and Spectacle series, Carrie and Ellie explore the inequity of American commemoration and how it deprives the marginalized, even in death. They discuss the corrupt dealings behind public works projects such as Lake Eufaula, which led to the forcible removal of native peoples and the flooding of their history. In the context of the discovery of countless children's remains near residential schools and an official record of 9/11 fatalities that excludes the undocumented, the sisters ask – how do we choose what and who to memorialize? What makes some ground holy and others deserving of desecration or erasure? Who has the right to rest in peace?Texts discussed include: Edmund Morgan's “American Slavery, American Freedom,” Jefferson Cowie's “Freedom's Dominion,” The 1965 James Baldwin - William F. Buckley Debate, Walter Johnson's “The Slave Trader, the White Slave, and the Politics of Racial Determination in the 1850's,“ Karla Cornejo Villavicencio's “The Undocumented Americans,” Jason de Leon's “The Land of Open Graves”, Alicia Elliott's short story “Unearth,” and Annette Gordon Reed's “The Hemingses of Monticello” and Walter Johnson's “The Strange Story of Alexina Morrison: Race, Sex, and Resistance in Antebellum Louisiana.”
Sam and Emma host Jefferson Cowie, Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, to discuss his recent book Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the GOP acting as the House majority, Ronna McDaniels winning the election for RNC Chair, and the murder of Tyre Nichols by the Memphis Police “Scorpion Squad,” before parsing through the lackluster response from the right to yet another example of the overwhelming violence of the US police state. Professor Jefferson Cowie then joins as he dives right into how he came to focus so specifically on the evolution of ideas of “freedom” in Barbour County, Alabama, looking to the southern US' particular anti-statist and anti-federal view of freedom that favors the freedom to dominate over the freedom from domination. Expanding on this lens, Professor Cowie explores various conceptions of freedom, including personal freedoms (as enshrined in the Bill of Rights), civil freedoms, and sovereign freedom – the freedom to control and dominate – and how the settler-colonial nature of the inception of the US aligns strongly with this latter idea. Beginning in this era, Jefferson walks Sam and Emma through “freedom” as a central political idea in the development of Barbour County, originating with the displacement of the people of the Muscogee Creek nations to clear land for slave labor, isolating them into a New Jersey-sized lock of land under supposed “protection,” and continuing through the white invaders' insistence on overcoming the tyranny of the government protecting this land, igniting a full war with the Creek peoples, and even forcing the government to step in to fully put down the indigenous rebellion. Moving forwards, Professor Cowie then walks through the reconstruction era and the white supremacist reaction to the election of various Black and freed members of society, launching a full coup on election day 1874 with an attempted massacre of enfranchised free folks, and an establishment of a local regime led by J.W. Comer that exemplified this white freedom to dominate, institutionalizing hardcore prison labor within a system that brought the imprisoned population from 8% African American to over 90%, and launching the county into the modern era of white supremacist institutions. Wrapping up the story portion, Jefferson Cowie dives into the emergence of Alabama Governor George Wallace from Barbour County as the final stage in the development of the southern philosophy of freedom, ingraining his white supremacist attitude within arguments against federal tyranny and faux-populist rhetoric for liberty, before they conclude the interview by assessing how to balance differing conceptions of freedom, and the importance of the federal government in ensuring the greatest freedom for the greatest number of people. Fun Half: Sam and Emma discuss the Right dismissal of the Tyre Nichols footage and the mass influx in anti-LGBTQ bills across the US, the GOP debates how to trim the woke from the budget, and Ben Shapiro blows the whistle on POLITICO's puppetry of the American public's opinion of the debt ceiling. Matt from Denver discusses his relationship to the Republican Party and their agenda, Amir from VA dives into his experiences in Brazil in the leadup to January 8th, Donald Trump's 2024 strategy begins to unfold from the sky, and Dennis Prager explores the nuances of bullying children, plus, your calls and IMs! Check out Jefferson's book here: https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/jefferson-cowie/freedoms-dominion/9781541672819/ Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Check out today's sponsors: ZipRecruiter: Some things in life we like to pick out for ourselves - so we know we've got the one that's best for us - like cuts of steak or mattresses. What if you could do the same for hiring - choose your ideal candidate before they even apply? See for yourself! Just go to this exclusive web address, https://www.ziprecruiter.com/majority to try ZipRecruiter for free! 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In Freedom's Dominion, historian Jefferson Cowie traces the American freedom which 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. Join us when a prize-winning historian chronicles a sinister idea of freedom: white Americans' freedom to oppress others and their fight against the government that got in their way, on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large.
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/public-policy
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-south
"History recalls Wallace's inaugural address as a set piece in the larger drama of defending Southern segregation, which it was. But the speech was about something even more profound, more enduring, even more virulent than segregation. Aside from his infamous “Segregation Forever” slogan, Wallace mentioned “segregation” only one other time that afternoon. In contrast, he invoked “freedom” twenty-five times in his speech—more than Martin Luther King Jr. would use the term later that year in his “I Have a Dream” address at the March on Washington. “Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us,” Wallace told his audience, “and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South.” Those rattling shackles of oppression were forged by the enemy of the people of his beloved Barbour County: the federal government." – Jefferson Cowie, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022). Professor Cowie titles his latest book's introduction ‘George Wallace and American Freedom', which frames part of the historical narrative within which he reexamines one of our most celebrated values within the purview of local history. But as The New York Times review of the book in December by author Jeff Shesol articulately summarized: ‘Freedom's Dominion is local history, but in the way that Gettysburg was a local battle or the Montgomery bus boycott was a local protest. The book recounts four peak periods in the conflict between white Alabamians and the federal government: the wild rush, in the early 19th century, to seize and settle lands that belonged to the Creek Nation; Reconstruction; the reassertion of white supremacy under Jim Crow; and the attempts of Wallace and others to nullify the civil rights reforms of the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout, as Cowie reveals, white Southerners portrayed the oppression of Black people and Native Americans not as a repudiation of freedom, but its precondition, its very foundation.' This book is an engrossing read and check this from Shesol's review about Wallace and his attraction: ‘Racism was central to his appeal, yet its common note was grievance; the common enemies were elites, the press and the federal government. “Being a Southerner is no longer geographic,” he declared in 1964, during the first of his four runs for the White House. “It's a philosophy and an attitude.” That attitude, we know, is pervasive now — a primal, animating principle of conservative politics. We hear it in conspiracy theories about the “deep state”; we see it in the actions of Republican officials like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who built a case for his re-election in 2022 by banning — in the name of “individual freedom” — classroom discussions of gender, sexuality and systemic racism.' Some of Professor Cowie's other books mentioned in this interview: Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy Year Quest for Cheap Labor (1999) received the 2000 Phillip Taft Prize for the Best Book in Labor History in 2000 Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (2010) awarded the Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History in 2011 The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (2016) Professor Cowie's work in social and political history focuses on how class, inequality, and labor shape American politics and culture. Formerly at Cornell, he is currently the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. Sydney Business School at Shanghai University - can be reached at keith.krueger1@uts.edu.au or keithNBn@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This episode delves into an enlightening discussion on Jefferson Cowie's 'Freedom's Dominion', a haunting journey tracing the deep-rooted racism and resistance against federal power in an Alabama county. The prodigious historian captures the narrative from Wallace's repressive creed, through the 19th and 20th centuries, to its echoes in today's right-wing rhetoric. The podcast reveals how the book is incredibly pertinent as it sheds light on the enduring racisms and staunch aversion to government, a truly essential read for anyone seeking to understand the profoundly unhealthy relationship between racism and zealous anti-government sentiment.
On July 4, 1964, Alabama Governor George Wallace decried the passing of “ [a] law that is going to destroy individual freedom and liberty in this country.” That law was the Civil Rights act of 1964, which struck down many of the Jim Crow laws that relegated black Americans to second-class citizens. How could Wallace and so many like him throughout American history see no irony in decrying the federal government for taking away their freedom to deny freedom to others? In this episode, we take that question up with Jefferson Cowie whose new book, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power (Basic Books, 2022), explores the meaning of freedom as understood by the white residents of one county in southern Alabama in the 19th and 20th centuries. Dr. Jefferson Cowie is James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, where he teaches social and political history. You can hear our previous conversations with Jeff in episode #24 The Great Exception: The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order and in episode #115 The 1970s. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.
The New Deal policies of the 1930s never brought an end to the Great Depression, but by establishing Social Security, ending child labor, and establishing a federal minimum wage, Franklin Roosevelt's administration and their allies in Congress laid the framework for the widespread prosperity of the post-World War II-era. As the gap between the richest and poorest Americans continues to widen at remarkable speed, politicians on the left have called for a return to the New Deal. But it might be better to look elsewhere. In this episode we speak with Jefferson Cowie about his books Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor, (Cornell University Press, 1999) & The Great Exception: The New Deal & The Limits of American Politics, (Princeton University Press, 2016). Dr. Jefferson Cowie is James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. You can learn more about him and his work at his website, jeffersoncowie.info. This episode originally aired on October 17, 2016 as RTN #24 The New Deal and It's Legacy w/ Jefferson Cowie. This reair was edited by Ben Sawyer.
In this special episode of our sister podcast, Get Hired with Andrew Seaman, Andrew sits down with labor historian Jefferson Cowie to get a short and powerful history of organized labor in the United States, Follow Andrew on LinkedIn and join the Get Hired community at https://lnkd.in/ghpodcast Follow Jessi on LinkedIn and preorder her signed memoir from Books Are Magic
While Labor Day in the U.S. is just the end of the summer for many today, it was originally a crucial recognition of the work of labor organizers in the late 1800s. But organized labor didn't stop there. Labor historian Jefferson Cowie, author of books including Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, joins Andrew to walk through an abridged history of organized labor in America. He also talks about what we should think about while enjoying Labor Day sales and BBQs this year. Check out Dr. Cowie's work here. Follow Andrew on LinkedIn and join the Get Hired community at https://lnkd.in/ghpodcast
Karl Lengelhosted this Wednesday's episode of Louisiana Considered. Actor Harry Shearerdiscusses the annual holiday charity event he hosts with his wife, Judith Owen: “Christmas Without Tears.” The event takes place next Tuesday and Wednesday at Le Petit Théâtre Du Vieux Carré in New Orleans. In an interview from this April, labor historian Jefferson Cowie discusses the first vote by Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, AL to unionize. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How a riot in Manhattan reconfigured a New York exploitation classic – and American politics for half a century. John G. Avildsen's 1970 New York drama was originally titled The Gap, dramatizing the white-hot topic of the generation gap through the story of a white-collar businessman searching for his hippie daughter in New York's seedy youth underbelly. But when it came out in that summer, its ad campaign focused on the supporting character of a loudmouth, bigoted hardhat, and it had also been retitled after that character: Joe. In this episode, we'll look at how the May 1970 “Hardhat Riot” in downtown New York City prompted not only that change, but a shift in electoral norms and party politics that continues to this day. And we'll look at Milos Forman's Taking Off, released the following year, which told a similar story of well-to-do parents searching for their hippie daughter in Gotham, but in a very different way (and with a very different outcome). Our guests are author and historians Jefferson Cowie and Derek Nystrom, filmmaker Larry Karaszweski, and film writers Kristy Puchko and Zach Vasquez.
Bruce Springsteen's life, music and impact on America was celebrated in a book called Long Walk Home that was published to celebrate his 70th birthday. Jefferson Cowie discusses his essay on ‘The Boss,' Springsteen's impact on today's polarized society, his take on American identity and much more.
Karl Lengel hosted Wednesday's Louisiana Considered: New Orleans lawmaker Rep. Royce Duplessis talks about youth incarceration. Vanderbilt University history professor and author Jefferson Cowie on the Amazon vote in Alabama and the decline of American labor unions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this episode of History Talk, host Patrick Potyondy interviews Jefferson Cowie, the James G. Stahlman Chair in the Department of History at Vanderbilt University. Cowie has written extensively on American economic, racial, cultural, and political history, and is the author most recently of The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics. In this interview, Cowie helps make sense of the 2016 presidential election by discussing the connections between the collapse of the New Deal exception, populism as the primary driving force of change in American politics, immigration as a key political pivot, the long-term movement of manufacturing jobs from place to place, and international trade like NAFTA and the TPP. He also explains why today's political climate looks a lot like the 1970s, not only in the electoral arena but in pop culture, too. Posted: September 2016 Connect with us! Email: Origins@osu.edu Twitter: @OriginsOSU Instagram: @OriginsOSU Facebook: @OriginsOSU Find transcripts, background reading, and more at origins.osu.edu
E016: Salman Ahmed, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and project editor of a new report on Nebraskans’ views of foreign policy, discusses the report takeaways—including what surprised him most about Nebraska. The project was designed to test assumptions about how U.S. foreign policy interacts with the economic wellbeing of the middle class and bring heartland voices to a debate that is typically influenced by coastal cities. He also discusses possible ways to better integrate the economic experience of American citizens into the foreign policymaking process. Opinions expressed on Trade Matters are solely those of the guest or host and not the Yeutter Institute or the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Show Notes: U.S. Foreign Policy for the Middle Class: Perspectives from Nebraska, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the University of Nebraska Nebraskans Support Trade But Trust in Media and Washington is Low by Jill O'Donnell System Maker and Privilege Taker: U.S. Power and the International Political Economy by Michael Mastanduno Failure to Adjust: How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global Economy by Edward Alden The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics by Jefferson Cowie
Jefferson CowieJefferson’s recent New York Times Piece “The ‘Hard Hat Riot’ Was a Preview of Today’s Political Divisions”The illuminating CASBS symposium “_Contesting the Nation_”, with Jefferson Cowie, Kathleen Belew, and Catherine RamírezRichard Rorty, CASBS fellow 1982-83 “Achieving Our Country”Donald F. Kettl’s “The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn’t Work”Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “Stranger in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right”Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the 21st Century”Special thanks to CASBS staff member Paola Dios for the opening the episode!Visit CASBS on the webFollow CASBS on Twitter
The 1970s was a pivotal decade in American history. In a ten-year span, the United States admitted defeat in Vietnam, saw a President resign in shame, and came face to face with many of the atrocities it had committed abroad. American citizens also faced a score of economic problems, including “stagflation,” an energy crisis, and the realization that many of them would end the decade worse off than they had been when it began. In today's episode we reflect on what happened in the 1970s, and what we can learn from it, in a conversation with RTN favorite, Vanderbilt University's Jefferson Cowie. Dr. Jefferson Cowie is James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University and the author of Stayin Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working (The New Press, 2010) and several other award-winning books on American history. Check out his other appearances on RTN in episode 24 and episode 70. You can find out more about Jefferson Cowie and his work at his website by clicking here. Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class will be released on audiobook on December 18, 2018, and libro.fm is the place to get it! Click here and use promo code RTN to get three audiobooks for just $15 as a new libro.fm member. You can support The Road to Now, Jefferson Cowie, and your local bookstore, all while you learn more about the past! The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.
Jefferson Cowie comes on the show to discuss the working class, patriotism, and the state of leftist politics. Ray and Andrew wonder about the American Dream and the resilience of liberalism. For this episode we read Cowie's short essays "Reclaiming Patriotism for the Left" and "How Labor Scholars Missed the Trump Revolt."
In this very special Antifada offering, Andy, Jamie and Sean are joined by your favorite sons: Matt Christman and Virgil Texas of Chapo Trap House. Gang begins by addressing the central questions of our hyper-digital age: what if God friended you on Facebook? Is QAnon just a benign hobby for bored Boomers? And, holy shit, what if GOD WAS QANON? Matt, Virgil and Jamie reveal - for the very first time - their respective political tendencies. Everyone marvels at how high-T Jeb(!) managed to lose the primary despite the PR coup of offering a poorly branded guaca bowle. Crew get knee-deep into Paul Schrader's 1978 classic "Blue Collar" starring Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto and Harvey Keitel's genitalia. How does this movie about struggling union autoworkers help us understand the 70s as more than just bad hair and bell bottoms? (C.f. Jefferson Cowie's "Stayin' Alive" and the upcoming "Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts and Reason") How did the "Golden Age" of US capitalism break down? How the hell did we end up in neoliberal hellworld when the 70s saw the most massive wildcat strike wave since the 30s? Why can't we return to decadent late social-democracy complete with coke benders, shag carpets to bang across, crushed velvet noodie posters and modernist chairs made to look like cocks'n'balls? Ugh. After the depressing grind of Blue Collar, Matt suggests we lighten the mood with "Gung Ho" (1986) starring Michael Keaton. What's more uplifting after watching a film about declining racial solidarity among the US working class than one that uses stereotypes about the Japanese for cheap yuks? What's more laughable than watching a town full of autoworker rubes look to a washed up high school jock to solve their employment crisis? In a startling twist, the entire crew turns on the American working class as the indolent, entitled chuds they are: you will all wear Ribbons of Shame in the highly disciplined and sadistic Japanese-dominated future! Luckily, this week's viral wildcat video by a Hero of Socialist Labor saves us from going full MAGA. Spoiler: in the end our various tendencies are synthesized into Antoine Dangerfield Thought. A sizzling premium episode with more spicy takes by Antifada, Matt and Virgil will drop later in the week! Become a patron today to access more content and hang out with us in our rad Discord community. The Antifada: http://www.patreon.com/theantifada Check out Chapo Trap House: @chapotraphouse @cushbomb @virgiltexas & https://www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse BUY THE BOOK: http://chapotraphouse.com/book Outro Music: Commodores "Machine Gun" Intro Music: Original composition by Jamie Ingalls Antifada logo: Debbie Allen @CVLTPARTY
The panel dives into the Jobs Guarantee vs. Universal Basic Income debate, Nathan pitches randomized college admissions, and everyone shares their worst past belief. The Panel: Briahna Joy Gray, contributing editor Oren Nimni, legal editor Lyta Gold, amusements editor Nathan J. Robinson, editor-in-chief Pete Davis, host Further reading on the UBI: Matt Bruenig on a social wealth fund and why a UBI already exists for the rich; James Surowiecki's case for free money; Dylan Matthews' critique of UBI critiques. Further reading on the Jobs Guarantee: Jeff Spross' case for a federal jobs guarantee; Jacobin's case; Jefferson Cowie on the history of the jobs guarantee; Atossa Araxia Abrahamian on Modern Monetary Theory; Zach Carter's profile of Modern Monetary Theorist Stephanie Kelton. Further reading contrasting UBI and Job's Guarantee: Jeff Spross on why not both?; Jonathan Malesic case against the dignity of work; Shannon Ikebe's case against the wrong kind of UBI; Alyssa Battistoni on the false promise of basic income. Further reading on the case for randomized college admissions: Nathan's article; Freddie DeBoer's defense of the SAT; Barry Schwartz on admissions lotteries. Here's a Voxsplainer on the Joy Reid controversy. A small correction from the episode: Paul Goodman did not say the youth of Kansas should build a mountain; David Riesman said that and Paul Goodman said it was ridiculous. The correct quote is: "When in our country David Riesman urges the youth of Kansas to build a mountain so that they can have manly work and enjoy skiing, one does not know whether to cry or laugh or cheer." Learn more about Paul Goodman by watching the interesting documentary Paul Goodman Changed My Life. Support Current Affairs by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. For the written form of Current Affairs — and to subscribe to the beautiful print magazine — visit: CurrentAffairs.org.
In 2009, Ben Sawyer read Jefferson Cowie's Capital Moves while studying for his doctoral exams, and he loved it. In 2016, Jeff joined the department of history at Vanderbilt, conveniently located about 5 miles from Ben's house in Nashville. Upon learning of Jeff's move, Ben quickly wrote to ask if he'd be a guest on The Road to Now. Jeff said yes, and we're happy to say he's as impressive in an interview as he is in print. In our interview, Bob and Ben speak with Jeff about Capitol Moves as well as the books he's written since then, which have explored the history of the working class and American politics in the 20th Century. Jeff explains the central argument of his most recent book, The Great Exception: The New Deal & The Limits of American Politics, and why he thinks looking back to New Deal policies is unproductive in 21st Century America. The conversation also touches on several important topics including outsourcing, ObamaCare, Social Security, & workers' rights, and the ways history can help us make better decisions as we address these issues moving forward. Dr. Jefferson Cowie holds the James G. Stahlman Chair in the Department of History at Vanderbilt University. Prior to moving to Vanderbilt in 2016, he taught at Cornell University for eighteen years. Recorded October 8, 2016 at Vanderbilt University w/ Bob via video call. For more on this episode and The Road to Now: www.theroadtonow.com
Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman professor of history at Vanderbilt University. His book The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016) interprets the New Deal as a massive but unstable experiment from the main of American political culture. Against arguments that the New Deal was the product of the American penchant for reform, Cowie asserts that it was a remarkable historical detour. The Great Depression and WWII were specific historical circumstances that wrought a short-lived effort for central government intervention in securing collective economic rights. Unions flourished, industrial workers gained job security and good wages, and the country enjoyed a relative amount of political cohesion. Multiple legislative measures and the growth of unions offered a countervailing power against corporate wealth accumulation and promised a bright economic future. Several enduring fissures in political culture would all but undo the New Deal after the 1970s. The long tensions over immigration, religious and racial hostility, the frailty of unions, and the ideology of Jeffersonian individualism remained and assured that the new interventionist role for the state would not last. By examining the birth of New Deal and its decline, Cowie locates a legacy of individual rights that stood against its long-term viability. As the central government has continued to expand under free market ideology, collective initiatives are being led at the local and state level by a cross-class neo-progressivism organizing labor and advocating for immigrants and other minorities. While the New Deal gave way to free market ideology, the future may lie in a new imaginary rising from below. Lilian Calles Barger, www.lilianbarger.com, is a cultural, intellectual and gender historian. Her current book project is entitled The World Come of Age: Religion, Intellectuals and the Challenge of Human Liberation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman professor of history at Vanderbilt University. His book The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016) interprets the New Deal as a massive but unstable experiment from the main of American political culture. Against arguments that the New Deal was the product of the American penchant for reform, Cowie asserts that it was a remarkable historical detour. The Great Depression and WWII were specific historical circumstances that wrought a short-lived effort for central government intervention in securing collective economic rights. Unions flourished, industrial workers gained job security and good wages, and the country enjoyed a relative amount of political cohesion. Multiple legislative measures and the growth of unions offered a countervailing power against corporate wealth accumulation and promised a bright economic future. Several enduring fissures in political culture would all but undo the New Deal after the 1970s. The long tensions over immigration, religious and racial hostility, the frailty of unions, and the ideology of Jeffersonian individualism remained and assured that the new interventionist role for the state would not last. By examining the birth of New Deal and its decline, Cowie locates a legacy of individual rights that stood against its long-term viability. As the central government has continued to expand under free market ideology, collective initiatives are being led at the local and state level by a cross-class neo-progressivism organizing labor and advocating for immigrants and other minorities. While the New Deal gave way to free market ideology, the future may lie in a new imaginary rising from below. Lilian Calles Barger, www.lilianbarger.com, is a cultural, intellectual and gender historian. Her current book project is entitled The World Come of Age: Religion, Intellectuals and the Challenge of Human Liberation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman professor of history at Vanderbilt University. His book The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016) interprets the New Deal as a massive but unstable experiment from the main of American political culture. Against arguments that the New Deal was the product of the American penchant for reform, Cowie asserts that it was a remarkable historical detour. The Great Depression and WWII were specific historical circumstances that wrought a short-lived effort for central government intervention in securing collective economic rights. Unions flourished, industrial workers gained job security and good wages, and the country enjoyed a relative amount of political cohesion. Multiple legislative measures and the growth of unions offered a countervailing power against corporate wealth accumulation and promised a bright economic future. Several enduring fissures in political culture would all but undo the New Deal after the 1970s. The long tensions over immigration, religious and racial hostility, the frailty of unions, and the ideology of Jeffersonian individualism remained and assured that the new interventionist role for the state would not last. By examining the birth of New Deal and its decline, Cowie locates a legacy of individual rights that stood against its long-term viability. As the central government has continued to expand under free market ideology, collective initiatives are being led at the local and state level by a cross-class neo-progressivism organizing labor and advocating for immigrants and other minorities. While the New Deal gave way to free market ideology, the future may lie in a new imaginary rising from below. Lilian Calles Barger, www.lilianbarger.com, is a cultural, intellectual and gender historian. Her current book project is entitled The World Come of Age: Religion, Intellectuals and the Challenge of Human Liberation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman professor of history at Vanderbilt University. His book The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016) interprets the New Deal as a massive but unstable experiment from the main of American political culture. Against arguments that the New Deal was the product of the American penchant for reform, Cowie asserts that it was a remarkable historical detour. The Great Depression and WWII were specific historical circumstances that wrought a short-lived effort for central government intervention in securing collective economic rights. Unions flourished, industrial workers gained job security and good wages, and the country enjoyed a relative amount of political cohesion. Multiple legislative measures and the growth of unions offered a countervailing power against corporate wealth accumulation and promised a bright economic future. Several enduring fissures in political culture would all but undo the New Deal after the 1970s. The long tensions over immigration, religious and racial hostility, the frailty of unions, and the ideology of Jeffersonian individualism remained and assured that the new interventionist role for the state would not last. By examining the birth of New Deal and its decline, Cowie locates a legacy of individual rights that stood against its long-term viability. As the central government has continued to expand under free market ideology, collective initiatives are being led at the local and state level by a cross-class neo-progressivism organizing labor and advocating for immigrants and other minorities. While the New Deal gave way to free market ideology, the future may lie in a new imaginary rising from below. Lilian Calles Barger, www.lilianbarger.com, is a cultural, intellectual and gender historian. Her current book project is entitled The World Come of Age: Religion, Intellectuals and the Challenge of Human Liberation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman professor of history at Vanderbilt University. His book The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016) interprets the New Deal as a massive but unstable experiment from the main of American political culture. Against arguments that the New Deal was the product of the American penchant for reform, Cowie asserts that it was a remarkable historical detour. The Great Depression and WWII were specific historical circumstances that wrought a short-lived effort for central government intervention in securing collective economic rights. Unions flourished, industrial workers gained job security and good wages, and the country enjoyed a relative amount of political cohesion. Multiple legislative measures and the growth of unions offered a countervailing power against corporate wealth accumulation and promised a bright economic future. Several enduring fissures in political culture would all but undo the New Deal after the 1970s. The long tensions over immigration, religious and racial hostility, the frailty of unions, and the ideology of Jeffersonian individualism remained and assured that the new interventionist role for the state would not last. By examining the birth of New Deal and its decline, Cowie locates a legacy of individual rights that stood against its long-term viability. As the central government has continued to expand under free market ideology, collective initiatives are being led at the local and state level by a cross-class neo-progressivism organizing labor and advocating for immigrants and other minorities. While the New Deal gave way to free market ideology, the future may lie in a new imaginary rising from below. Lilian Calles Barger, www.lilianbarger.com, is a cultural, intellectual and gender historian. Her current book project is entitled The World Come of Age: Religion, Intellectuals and the Challenge of Human Liberation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman professor of history at Vanderbilt University. His book The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016) interprets the New Deal as a massive but unstable experiment from the main of American political culture. Against arguments...
Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman professor of history at Vanderbilt University. His book The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016) interprets the New Deal as a massive but unstable experiment from the main of American political culture. Against arguments that the New Deal was the product of the American penchant for reform, Cowie asserts that it was a remarkable historical detour. The Great Depression and WWII were specific historical circumstances that wrought a short-lived effort for central government intervention in securing collective economic rights. Unions flourished, industrial workers gained job security and good wages, and the country enjoyed a relative amount of political cohesion. Multiple legislative measures and the growth of unions offered a countervailing power against corporate wealth accumulation and promised a bright economic future. Several enduring fissures in political culture would all but undo the New Deal after the 1970s. The long tensions over immigration, religious and racial hostility, the frailty of unions, and the ideology of Jeffersonian individualism remained and assured that the new interventionist role for the state would not last. By examining the birth of New Deal and its decline, Cowie locates a legacy of individual rights that stood against its long-term viability. As the central government has continued to expand under free market ideology, collective initiatives are being led at the local and state level by a cross-class neo-progressivism organizing labor and advocating for immigrants and other minorities. While the New Deal gave way to free market ideology, the future may lie in a new imaginary rising from below. Lilian Calles Barger, www.lilianbarger.com, is a cultural, intellectual and gender historian. Her current book project is entitled The World Come of Age: Religion, Intellectuals and the Challenge of Human Liberation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman professor of history at Vanderbilt University. His book The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016) interprets the New Deal as a massive but unstable experiment from the main of American political culture. Against arguments that the New Deal was the product of the American penchant for reform, Cowie asserts that it was a remarkable historical detour. The Great Depression and WWII were specific historical circumstances that wrought a short-lived effort for central government intervention in securing collective economic rights. Unions flourished, industrial workers gained job security and good wages, and the country enjoyed a relative amount of political cohesion. Multiple legislative measures and the growth of unions offered a countervailing power against corporate wealth accumulation and promised a bright economic future. Several enduring fissures in political culture would all but undo the New Deal after the 1970s. The long tensions over immigration, religious and racial hostility, the frailty of unions, and the ideology of Jeffersonian individualism remained and assured that the new interventionist role for the state would not last. By examining the birth of New Deal and its decline, Cowie locates a legacy of individual rights that stood against its long-term viability. As the central government has continued to expand under free market ideology, collective initiatives are being led at the local and state level by a cross-class neo-progressivism organizing labor and advocating for immigrants and other minorities. While the New Deal gave way to free market ideology, the future may lie in a new imaginary rising from below. Lilian Calles Barger, www.lilianbarger.com, is a cultural, intellectual and gender historian. Her current book project is entitled The World Come of Age: Religion, Intellectuals and the Challenge of Human Liberation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices