On Wednesday, February 5, the American Academy Lecture took place at the John F. Kennedy Institute at Freie Universität Berlin. Historian Jefferson Cowie from Vanderbilt University presented a lecture titled Freedom: The Troubled History of an American Ideal.

Cowie, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, explored the paradoxes of freedom in U.S. history. While many associate freedom with the struggle of the oppressed, his research reveals that throughout history, white Americans have often fought for their own freedom at the expense of others, using it to dominate land, labor, and political power. Drawing from his book Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power, Cowie provided insight into how this resistance has shaped American politics, especially in recent years.