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Excited to listen to Prof. Tyler Stovall's talk about his new book, "White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea" https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179469/white-freedom
Stovall on the Capitol building: Why not call "emancipation hall" slave hall instead? It's a more accurate term.
All nations exist on a transnational plane; inherent value in comparing the US and France, two countries that used "liberty" as a means to push for colonial agenda.
Important to think of the Third Republic as an empire without an emperor, given the amount of colonial expansion under that supposedly democratic government.
Contradictions in republican citizenship make the notion of "freedom" itself a racist ideology (claim made in Stovall's book).
Freedom has not always been a positive term. Synonyms like license and liberty point to the limits of the "good" of freedom. History or anarchism is another example. Freedom always has to have limits.
No need to use a different term, however. Lots of people have worked for a more universalized vision of freedom. That work doesn't have to be discarded.
Stovall importantly recognizes that tenure makes this kind of project possible. I think it's important to remember how job security (or lack thereof) in the academy makes possible certains forms of knowledge.
Thank you @DrSepinwall for asking my question!
