Edward G. Gray

"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 "A fitting testament to a career marked by boundary-crossing curiosity and stalwart service to the historical profession…[a] splendid new history." - Richard Bell, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society "Fascinating…does justice to the full...

The first comprehensive history of the Mason-Dixon Line, the borderland that encapsulated the American story of rivalry and settler-colonial violence, slavery and audacious growth. The United States is the product of border dynamics—not international frontiers, but the boundary that runs through its first heartland. The story of the Mason-Dixon Line is the story of America's colonial beginnings, nation building, and...