Walkin' the Line: A Journey from Past to Present Along the Mason-Dixon

This unique history/travelogue examines the influence of this great divider which remains the most powerful symbol separating Yankee from Rebel.

Most boundaries between states and nations have been determined by land features, such as rivers and mountains. But the Mason-Dixon Line does not follow anything palpable; it runs along uneven latitudes and longitudes, and at no point does it touch any prominent landmark. Except for its stone markers, it is invisible -- an arbitrary and man-made demarcation, direct and true, but without dimension.

Ecenbarger calls it "simultaneously, a product of reason and a national landmark."

William Ecenbarger is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Glory by the Wayside: The Old Churches of Hawaii and Kids for Cash: Two Judges, Thousands of Children and a $2.6 Million Kickback Scheme." And he is the co-author of  Catching Lightning in a Bottle: How Merrill Lynch Revolutionized the Financial World, and Making Ideas Matter: My Life as a Policy Entrepreneur.