What Edith Wharton teaches about the defense of affirmative action -- Mark Twain and the secret joys of antiracist pedagogy -- Gender, liberalism, and racial geometry -- Awakened White femininity and a shaping Mexicanist presence -- Trafficking in liberal masculinities -- American innocence vs. liberal guilt -- "A good fellow wronged" : Christopher Newman and the feeling of American exceptionalism -- Liberal guilt and the age of innocence.