Description
Book SynopsisEstablished to calm intracolonial tensions, the Mason-Dixon Line first marked a region of breakneck development and Native American resistance, then the boundary between pro- and antislavery regimes. Edward Gray’s is the first comprehensive history of the line and its dynamic role in the US from the colonial period to the Civil War—and beyond.
Trade ReviewA magisterial yet highly nuanced account that ventures back and forth across Mason and Dixon’s fabled demarcation line as audaciously as 18th-century raiding parties once did. -- Harold Holzer * Wall Street Journal *
Deeply researched and highly readable. -- Eric Foner * Times Literary Supplement *
A rich history of regional distinctions, especially as they shaped the antebellum Republic. * Kirkus Reviews *
Erudite, gripping, and highly significant. Gray puts his talents as a historian of the American Revolution and the early republic to excellent use, persuasively arguing that the Mason-Dixon Line is worth seeing as a geopolitical border—a place where the layered sovereignties of colonies, empires, states, Native powers, and the US government often clashed. -- Kathleen DuVal, author of
Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American RevolutionA splendid book. The Mason-Dixon Line has always been much more than a boundary, and Gray gives us a richly researched, elegantly written history, exploring all of the twists and turns of a cartographic projection that was never quite as straight or simple as the surveyors hoped it would be. -- Edward L. Widmer, author of
Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to WashingtonAn ambitious, engrossing book by one of our most prolific scholars of early America. This inspired history of the Mason-Dixon Line reveals that America’s most notorious borderland was also deeply representative of the broader national experience. Long before the region became synonymous with the frontier between slavery and freedom, its history was forged in imperial intrigue, Native dispossession, and rural resentment against coastal elites. -- Brian DeLay, author of
War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.–Mexican WarThis impressive book expertly excavates the meaning of the iconic Mason-Dixon Line, bringing into view its territorial, economic, legal, political, ethnic, religious, and cultural layers. With precision and flair, Gray reveals a profound irony: while ‘the Line’ was meant to quell dissension in the volatile Maryland-Pennsylvania borderlands, it became an enduring metaphor for a divided nation. -- Elizabeth R. Varon, author of
Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil WarA fresh and illuminating reframing of Anglo-American and US history through the Civil War. Gray’s great achievement is to center our attention on a neglected region—neglected precisely because the Mason-Dixon Line divides it, distinguishing the two great sections that have dominated our national narrative, North and South. -- Peter S. Onuf, author of
Jefferson and the Virginians: Democracy, Constitutions, and Empire
