The Ragged Edge of Freedom

"This sweeping, gripping study of the Midwestern borderlands captures the history of what Bertolt Brecht called ’social tragedy.’ Stanley shows how large social forces, often propelled by extractive capital, structured the sadnesses that too often led ordinary white people to come to believe the exclusion of Black workers would somehow make for safety and happiness among whites. A major contribution to the history of white identities at the regional level, of moments of interracial resistance, and of the intersections of race and class." ~David Roediger, author, An Ordinary White: My Antiracist Education

"An illuminating, illustrative—and often moving—exploration of the toxic price paid by the heedless construction of whiteness.." ~Gerald Horne, author, African Americans and a New History of the USA

"Stanley’s learned study of race and class, economies and emotions, is a strongly documented historical analysis of exploitative capitalism. As a regional study with broader implications, he shows how, pre- and post-Civil War, before and after the creation of unions, institutions sowed racial panic for power and profit, even as whiteness by itself was never a ticket to class mobility. Stanley makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the complicated nexus where racial and class politics meet." ~Nancy Isenberg, T. Harry Williams Professor of History (emeritus), Louisiana State University, and author, White Trash

"An unblinking examination of how race reshaped the Civil War-era idea of ‘free labor’ in the lower Midwest, The Ragged Edge of Freedom takes us from slavery, to the troublesome labor history of the region in the early twentieth century. The result is a model for how scholars might approach the intricacies of race and class at the regional level—one that surveys the challenges of collective struggle from below while never losing sight of possible alternatives. Stanley addresses these complex problems in a masterly fashion." ~Mark A. Lause, Professor Emeritus, University of Cincinnati