David Scott is Ruth and William Lubic Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University.Orlando Patterson is John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University.

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION: ORLANDO PATTERSON AND THE PARADOX OF FREEDOM’S BIRTH FROM SLAVERYThe Paradox of Slavery and FreedomThe Existential Birth of Freedom from SlaveryThe Historical Birth of Freedom from SlaveryDialogical Generations, Intellectual Traditions, and Problem-SpacesNotesTHE PARADOX OF FREEDOMA Mother’s ProjectYears of DecolonizationKingston CollegeUniversity College of the West IndiesThe Repairer of the BreachThe Rise of the Social SciencesThe London School of EconomicsWest Indian FictionThe Children of SisyphusThe Sociology of SlaveryThe Caribbean Artists MovementAn Absence of RuinsReturning HomeNot Much of a JoinerDie the Long DayArrival at HarvardEngaging Black AmericaMaking Public Policy in Socialist JamaicaSlavery and Social DeathThe Paradox of FreedomThe Ordeal of IntegrationRituals of BloodThe Confounding IslandThe Perspective of an Historical SociologistNotesINDEX

"The Paradox of Freedom retraces the unique odyssey of the world's most eminent scholar of slavery and race in history, at the unlikely crossroads of Jamaica, literature, New Left politics, and sociology at Harvard. Read it: you will be swept along, thrilled, and educated all at once."Loïc Wacquant, University of California, Berkeley"Forged in a crucible of life experience as a Jamaican, Orlando Patterson's lifelong exploration of the dialectical tension between freedom and slavery is brilliantly elucidated through dialogic conversation with David Scott, who traces the trajectory of a remarkable and still unfolding intellectual and artistic journey."John Bodel, Brown University"I believe The Paradox of Freedom is the best single-volume introduction to Patterson's work currently in print."Christopher Muller, European Journal of Sociology"The Paradox of Freedom allows us to appreciate the extent to which Patterson is a West Indian intellectual, part of an intellectual tradition that includes key figures such as C.L.R. James and Eric Williams."Adom Getachew, European Journal of Sociology"One thing that has always been compelling about Patterson's work, which comes across with special intensity in the interview with David Scott that forms the core of The Paradox of Freedom, is a determined willingness to face reality. Not just reality in its generic, contradictory messiness, but in its tragic and morally unsettling objectivity."Alexander Gourevitch, European Journal of Sociology"A stirring work, embodying a profound intellectual biography of Patterson as a person and of the collective experience of the anti-colonial and postcolonial eras."Aziz Rana, European Journal of Sociology"Over six decades, Orlando Patterson has produced a body of work characterized by exceptional diversity, breadth, depth, scholarship, audacity, and impact."Christoph Menke, European Journal of Sociology