Ed Ayres

"Among endurance runners, there are those who have run very long distances, and then there are those who have run very long distances for a very long time. Ed Ayres exemplifies the latter; having run in over 600 races across fifty-five years, he is arguably the most experienced American distance runner still competing today. 'The Longest Race' begins at the starting line of the 2001 JFK 50 Mile--the nation's oldest and largest ultramarathon and, like...

A revealing history of the formative period when voices of dissent and innovation defied power and created visions of America still resonant today. The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the expansion of slavery, Native dispossession, and wars with Canada and Mexico. Mass immigration and powerful religious movements sent tremors through American society. But even as the powerful defended the status quo, others defied it: voices from the...