White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea

by Tyler Stovall

The era of the Enlightenment, which gave rise to our modern conceptions of freedom and democracy, was also the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. America, a nation founded on the principle of liberty, is also a nation built on African slavery, Native American genocide, and systematic racial discrimination. White Freedom traces the complex relationship between freedom and race from the eighteenth century to today, revealing how being free has meant being white.

Tyler Stovall explores the intertwined histories of racism and freedom in France and the United States, the two leading nations that have claimed liberty as the heart of their national identities. He explores how French and American thinkers defined freedom in racial terms and conceived of liberty as an aspect and privilege of whiteness. He discusses how the Statue of Liberty―a gift from France to the United States and perhaps the most famous symbol of freedom on Earth―promised both freedom and whiteness to European immigrants. Taking readers from the Age of Revolution to today, Stovall challenges the notion that racism is somehow a paradox or contradiction within the democratic tradition, demonstrating how white identity is intrinsic to Western ideas about liberty. Throughout the history of modern Western liberal democracy, freedom has long been white freedom.

A major work of scholarship that is certain to draw a wide readership and transform contemporary debates, White Freedom provides vital new perspectives on the inherent racism behind our most cherished beliefs about freedom, liberty, and human rights.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, Politics, Sociology, Theory, American History

436 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Karen Adkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stovall's history covers a lot of ground chronologically (late 18th century to the present), while simultaneously focusing tightly on a single concept--how liberty is defined in racial terms (as a quality reserved for white people, based on their presumed underlying rationality and discipline, and in opposition to BIPOC folks). He's a historian by training, but has written this in a way that will engage folks who are interested in thinking more deeply about the history of racism. I was particularly engaged with his early chapters, where he points out that alternative models of liberty existed during the social contract era when political liberty was conceptualized as a white concept. Piracy and childhood are his examples, and he makes the case well (I actually wanted these chapters to go a bit more in depth into some of the primary literature in all three cases, but I think that is more because of my own academic interests than his failing to make the case). I particularly valued the conclusion of the book, where he makes the case that a racialized past for liberty doesn't condemn it for the future. It's a cautiously optimistic conclusion, which essentially argues for us to learn the lessons from our past. Would that we might start.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Convincingly demonstrates how conceptions of freedom and liberty are historically and intrinsically shaped by white identity and this remains true today. While the book focuses mostly on US and French history, it has a global perspective that I appreciated and learned a lot from. The beginning is especially interesting as Stovall connects seemingly disconnected cultural artifacts such as Peter Pan, the Statue of Liberty, and Pirates of the Caribbean in order to illustrate white freedom as a very particular and carefully crafted construction of freedom and liberty.

"The paradox between liberty and racism was no paradox at all; instead, racial distinctions played a key role in the rise of modern ideas of freedom and cannot be separated from those ideas."

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

In White Freedom, Mr. Stovall makes a bold and forcefully-argued thesis: that there is an unacknowledged yet fundamental racial dimension to the American conception of freedom. By clear yet remarkably nuanced readings of the history, iconography, and ideology of the "Land of Liberty," Mr. Stovall sheds much needed light on an unsettling, vicious aspect of Americans' favorite virtue.

Mr. Stovall's book will be discomfiting reading for many, myself included, who have thought deeply about the nature of freedom in America but have failed to discern (or acknowledge?) its racist character. It is for this very reason that White Freedom should be required reading for undergrads taking their first course in political theory or American history.

[Lionel Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things that have confused me as I have followed American history and politics over the years is how certain things that should not go together seem to. For example, how can someone who claims to be a patriot fly both the American and confederate flag side by side on the pole and see nothing wrong with that? How can groups that are working to curtail others' rights claim to be the true patriots and the " real America"? What is it about right-wing politics that allows its advocacy to wrap itself in patriotic imagery? Stovall makes the argument that to understand these concepts, you must look at the concept of freedom and how it intersects with race in both Europe and the United States.

According to Stovall the concept of freedom as it is defined in America today is an idea that has historically only applied completely to those of European descent. He argues that from the enlightenment forward when most intellectuals, politicians, and leaders discussed freedom it was implied that this freedom applied to white men. In fact, Stoval points out that leaders would often use the nonwhite people they encountered to define the boundaries of White freedom. For example, the Native American's were considered to enjoy a sort of savage untamed freedom lacking civilization similar to the freedom of a wild animal. By contrast, Africans in the U.S. were considered a symbol of the very opposite of freedom and being in a degraded state due to their enslavement. ( Interesting that slavery degrades the enslaved and not the enslaver) .

When seen through the lens of being an exclusively white concept many of the odd juxtapositions in American society and culture begin to make more sense. Sure a confederate and American flag can be flow side by side because the Civil War was ultimately a dispute between two (white) groups discussing how the country would be run with the actions, thought, and opinions of the slaves having very little bearing on the conversation. Groups that oppose the rights of various minority groups can still wave the American flag and claim to be the " real Americans" and true patriots because as far as they are concerned those other groups are not fully deserving of freedoms, to begin with, and are not really considered.

This is an academic book and therefore will probably not be read by many of those who really need to. Stovall does take a while to get to his main idea so the book can be slow in parts but overall this is a very good book that deals with a tricky subject. Stovall uses a careful history-based approach to examine this tricky concept.

[David Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Stovall, focusing on France and the United States, argues that 'two seemingly opposite philosophies, liberty and racism, are in significant ways not opposites at all' (x). They are reinforcing concepts of the same social system." --Alan J. Singer, Liberty, Freedom, and Whiteness: Reviewing Tyler Stovall's "White Freedom". History News Network

https://historynewsnetwork.org/articl...

"But as he demonstrates, at the heart of the two nations were both a commitment to liberty and a vision of society in which this liberty was unequally distributed and deeply racialized. The result was freedom for those at the top of the racial hierarchy, supported by and premised upon the unfreedom of those at the bottom.

"According to Stovall, then, the dueling realities of freedom and slavery, liberty and domination, master and slave, are not just a clash of opposites; instead, they have been and continue to be counterparts in the making of modern history. To be free, Stovall notes, has long meant to be white, and to be white has conversely long meant to be free." --Olúfémi O. Táíwò, Liberty for Whom? The Racialized History of Freedom. The Nation.

https://www.thenation.com/article/cul...

One of the best works of historiography I've read, period! Most highly recommended; 5/5 stars and a must read.

[Mary Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to stop halfway because the narrator was no good.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent points and opinions spanning a great deal of time. A little dry and therefore difficult to get through. Overall, a great read with a fantastic perspective.

[Satya Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is phenomenally relevant in 2025, just as much so as it was at the time of its publication in January of 2021. White Freedom should be a staple in undergraduate race & politics curricula--it engages the audience with familiar symbolism such as Peter Pan, the Statue of Liberty, the evermore relevant Wuthering Heights and parses through such symbols and how they interconnect ideas of freedom and race. I could see this book as something divisive in America at this time. Is the idea of whiteness concurrent with our idea of American freedom? Can we separate the racial elements of the Enlightenment from the philosophies of liberté, egalité, and fraternité? This books begins as theoretical and thematic in part two and then delves into a more chronological account of the creation of liberty amongst modernity--it goes through wartime and Cold War periods of time in addition to Civil Rights, the Age of Revolutions, etc. Stovall does a phenomenal job making this connection of race and liberty, and though he himself passed in 2021, his historical legacy will live on strongly amongst academic circles. I will be raving about and recommending this book to all who will listen to my ramblings.

[Pascal Scallon-Chouinard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does freedom mean the same thing to everyone? Does the idea of freedom have the same resonance in all communities? Freedom in the West, in the way it has been defined, in the rhetoric that proclaims it and in the symbols that represent it, is an idea intimately linked to the racial question. In this major study, Tyler Stovall examines the interconnected history of racism and the concept of liberty in France and the United States, from the 18th century to the present day. He demonstrates how the idea of liberty has been defined and expressed through a lens of whiteness and exclusivity.

At the time of this book's publication, in 2021, Stovall's conception was not new, but the historian brings to bear all his expertise as a specialist in French history, immigration and racial issues. His approach to analyzing side by side two societies that place the symbolism of freedom at the heart of their identity and definition is particularly interesting and constitutes one of the strengths of this book.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tyler Stovall delivers a thorough, lively history of an idea. Beginning in the European Enlightment and making his way to the War on Terror, Stovall explores how the Western world has racialized the idea of freedom. Viewing it through this lens, he reconciles the contradiction between the idea of freedom in Western liberal democracies and the treatment of non-white peoples by those countries. He does not avoid the uncomfortable and likely controversial conclusions to be drawn from his subject.

[Iñaki Tofiño]

Interesting approach to the contemporary Western idea of freedom. Without explicitly citing them, the work uses the tenets of Whiteness Studies to link modern conceptions of freedom (US Declaration of Independence, French revolution...) with a racial distinction, which only granted liberty to white men. The book helps locate a certain idea and explain its contradictions and the way it has been challenged historically.

[Sarah Sinclair]

Tyler Stovall argues that the use of the term liberty has had an important racial dimension: « in many ways to be white meant to be free, and to be free meant to be white (243). » This is a work of history, both dense and accessible at the same time. Stovall writes with concise precision to argue his point, making the reader rethink terms employed that are central to Western political ideology, terms whose intended meanings and actual uses were not the same as the purported definitions of said words. That is of course not to say a more egalitarian and revolutionary concept of liberty is not possible or has not been pushed for, but rather to urgently argue for a rethinking of the past and present to understand how supposed contradictions, such as the founding of the United States, land of the free, wrote slavery into the constitution, were in fact not contradictions at all. At times I found the claims to be too general, but I imagine the purpose was to be able to provide an accessible history that ultimately illuminated his thesis, and that encouraged a rethinking on the part of the audience. The analysis starts with the Enlightenment and the Age of Revolution and ends with the late twentieth century, looking at the ideas from a global perspective but mainly focusing on France and the United States. This was not a quick read but I would recommend.

In the conclusion, Stovall writes : « Ultimately, White Freedom represents an exploration of the possibilities and results from placing race at the center of modern history…To conflate a seemingly universal value such as liberty with such a generally suspect idea as race is to call into question the moral dimensions of modern history, to explore how our notions of good and evil, and the relationship between them, changed over the course of centuries (314-315). »

[Rolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the central argument here is rather intuitive and has been made before (that the idea of freedom has, in the modern era, always been racialized), it is made pretty clearly and compellingly here, and the historical grounding of the argument is really strong and provides a lot of compelling specifics.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterful account of how the idea of freedom became intertwined with White identity and became an exclusively White cultural and political property. It blends American and French history with literary criticism and cultural studies. It really makes you think. Not an easy book to consume but worthwhile.

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

The scope of the book was intimidating, but it was quite convincing. The very notion of freedom has always been tied up with whiteness and continues to be. The parts about French history were particularly interesting to me.

[Brent Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to disagree with facts (although people do all of the time). The research done to put this book together was extensive and well worth the time. Excellent book with historical and present day information that could be used to change the world.

[Tristan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great overview of the conceptions and interconnections of race, freedom, and liberty in the context of the US, European colonialism and empire.

Five stars as this is an oft elided aspect of Western history.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not finish this one. Got through Chapter 4 of 6. For me, there was just not enough meat in this sandwich. Felt like a dissertation that was padded to publish as a book. Also, maybe I was expecting more history and less cultural studies. Would have been better as an article.

[Derek Kreider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the thesis of the book and think the author did a good job overall of showing how “freedom” is a really loaded term. I especially liked how the author brought in places like Vietnam and the Congo. I wish he would have spent more time on those aspects that are more unknown.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

good review of recent history (300 years) from a

[Jason Scoggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Concepts throughout. Excellent linkage of the ideals of freedom, and the idea of whiteness.

[Kathy Chasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible, well reasoned, hits home.

[Robert Lonnay]

I think history has to be all inclusive, humanity has changed colors many times in our world, so easy to blame one type of color and sell books .

[Alex Kash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Argued convincingly. Stovall connects the historical dots in an innovative way.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful, provocative look at the relationship between freedom and race.

[Tim Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent comparative work!

[Megan B · Rating 4 out of 5]

White Freedom was very informative, and had a lot of information to convey. It was very dry and very slow reading, and sometimes the conclusions felt forced.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF, sort of dry and honestly things I thought were fairly understood to be true.

[Beckett Zinn-Rowthorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great but a bit too broad (IMO) study of how Enlightenment ideals of freedom were racialized.

[Colin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important topics are explored in a non-offensive way. But, the writing style is not very sharp, and some of the comparisons are ill chosen (pirates?).