Introduction: George Wallace and American freedom -- Book one: Land. Marshall Crawford's orders; Land, liberty, and Jackson; The killing of Hardeman Owens; The compromise of Francis Scott Key; Uprising -- Book two: Citizenship. Igniting a wall of fire; "Destroying freedom and liberty"; The Greeley gamble and the dueling dual legislatures of 1872; The white line: afternoon, election day 1874; The fate of the scalawag: evening, election day 1874 -- Book three: Federal power in repose. The prison mines; White oligarchy as Jeffersonian democracy; Lynching as an act of freedom; A new deal for southside?; The bourbon from barbour -- Book four: Democracy. The fightin' judge; The albert street club; From clayton to the nation; The SCOPE of freedom; The vote is not enough; The northern strategy

A prize-winning historian chronicles the long-running clash between white people and federal authority by focusing on Barbour County, Alabama and its history of fighting Reconstruction, integration, and the New Deal