Edward J. Larson is the author of many acclaimed works in American history, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Scopes Trial, Summer for the Gods. He is University Professor of History and Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University, and lives with his family near Los Angeles.
Timely and compelling. American Inheritance relates the vital story of liberty and slavery in Revolutionary America with balance and nuance. -- Susan Dunn, author of Jefferson's Second Revolution Larson deftly explores the dramatic lives and revealing words of free and enslaved Americans who sought either to preserve or erase the pervasive tension between liberty and bondage in the Revolutionary era. -- Alan Taylor, author of American Republics Larson has brought a true historian's sensibility to the fierce new debate over slavery at the founding. American Inheritance unearths a legacy of unexpected ironies, terrible tragedies, and fateful opportunities-a legacy with which Americans still struggle today -- John Fabian Witt, author of Lincoln's Code Larson makes clear how inseparable were the concepts of freedom and bondage in these early years, and thereby makes understandable why the contradictions they created have vexed us so long. -- H. W. Brands, author of Our First Civil War