Eric Foner
Author of Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877
About the Author
Eric Foner is the preeminent historian of his generation. His books have won the top awards in the profession, and he has been president of both major history organizations, the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. He is the author of Give Me Liberty!, which show more displays all of his trademark strengths as a scholar, teacher, and writer. A specialist on the Civil War/Reconstruction period, he regularly teaches the nineteenth-century survey at Columbia University, where he is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History. In 2011, Foner's The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery won the Pulitzer Prize in History, the Bancroft Prize, and the Lincoln Prize. His Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad is a 2015 New York Times bestseller. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Photo by Greer Gattuso (© 2005 Eric Foner)
Works by Eric Foner
Collected Writings: Common Sense, The Crisis, and Other Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters; Rights of Man; The Age of… (1995) — Editor — 1,049 copies, 4 reviews
Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War (1970) 563 copies, 4 reviews
The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019) 418 copies, 8 reviews
Reconstruction Updated Edition: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) (2014) 355 copies, 3 reviews
A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition] (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) (2015) 139 copies, 1 review
Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World (2008) — Editor; Contributor — 123 copies, 3 reviews
Thomas Paine : Collected Writings: Common Sense / The American Crisis / Rights of (1995) — Editor — 4 copies
Registration Access Code for Give Me Liberty!: An American History VOL 1 (Fifth Brief Edition) (2017) 1 copy
BATTLE PIECES 1 copy
A New View of Reconstruction 1 copy
Associated Works
Who Built America?: Working People and the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society: Volume One (1989) — Consulting editor, some editions — 127 copies
The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s (1995) — Consulting editor — 106 copies
The American Revolution: Explorations in the History of American Radicalism (1976) — Contributor — 81 copies
The Origins of American Slavery: Freedom and Bondage in the English Colonies (1997) — Consulting editor — 79 copies, 2 reviews
Major Problems in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era: Documents and Essays (1993) — Contributor — 78 copies
Audacious Democracy: Labor, Intellectuals, and the Social Reconstruction of America (1997) — Contributor — 33 copies
After Slavery: Race, Labor, and Citizenship in the Reconstruction South (New Perspectives on the History of the South) (2013) — Afterword — 14 copies
Beyond the Civil War Synthesis: Political Essays of the Civil War Era (Contributions in American History) (1975) — Contributor — 6 copies
Anti-slavery, religion, and reform : essays in memory of Roger Anstey (1980) — Contributor — 4 copies
Instructor's Manual and Test Bank for Give Me Liberty! An American History, Vol.1. 3rd Edition (2004) — Original Author — 3 copies
Why is there no socialism in the United States? = Pourquoi n'y a-t-il pas de socialisme aux États-Unis? (1988) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Foner, Eric
- Birthdate
- 1943-02-07
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
- Education
- Columbia University (BA | 1963)
Oxford University (Oriel College)
Columbia University (PhD | 1969) - Occupations
- historian
- Relationships
- Garafola, Lynn (wife)
Foner, Jack D. (father)
Foner, Philip S. (uncle)
Foner, Moe (uncle)
Foner, Henry (uncle)
Foner, Nancy (cousin) (show all 7)
Garb, Margaret (student) - Organizations
- Columbia University
American Historical Association (president | 2000) - Awards and honors
- Avery O. Craven Award (1989)
Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates (1991)
New York Council for the Humanities Scholar of the Year (1995)
Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award (2020)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Favourite Books (1)
Labor History (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 64
- Also by
- 27
- Members
- 10,156
- Popularity
- #2,339
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 103
- ISBNs
- 251
- Languages
- 4
- Favorited
- 12
In article from the late 90s called Our Monumental Mistakes, Foner examines the then (as now) blazing controversy over Civil War monuments. Should they be taken down? Should the war’s defeated be allowed to lionize their failed leaders? And who really were the people being given statues? A little digging shows that “most Confederate monuments were erected between 1890 and 1920 under the leadership of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.” This means they were offered to localities. It was not the case that residents clamored for them to be erected. The monuments glorify people like the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, for example. And all those horse-mounted heroes are situated facing north, never retreating but always attacking the Union armies. Games. And the US is still playing them, this round with Proud Boys and Neo-Nazis defending the statues of traitors.
The way American monuments lie about the past come in all kinds of flavors, but all amounting to lies just the same. In his usual polite manner, Foner simply says “Amnesia best describes America’s official stance regarding slavery.”
In another chapter, he examines schooling in Texas, where never was heard discouraging word, giving students a totally distorted view of the nation. He says high schoolers learn about Phyllis Schlafly, The Moral Majority, The Heritage Foundation, the Contract with America, and the NRA. All ultra-conservative, and hardly representative of anything but failed extremism. Today, Texas has added massive book banning to ensure its young never see reality. As Foner says later: “America was created perfect and has just been getting better ever since.”
He is dumbfounded by the attacks on affirmative action. This after diagnosing the Reconstruction era as hypocritical, and the Jim Crow era that immediately followed, undoing what little equality and affirmative action was gained. His argument: “Let us not delude ourselves, however, into thinking that eliminating affirmative action will produce a society in which rewards are based on merit. Despite our rhetoric, equal opportunity has never been the American way. For nearly all our history, affirmative action has been a prerogative of white men.” And this was 20 years before the Roberts court dismantled it.
A fan of Lincoln, Foner also points to his same kind of wit and wisdom in the 16th president: “Young America,” he remarked “owns a large part of the world, by right of possessing it; and all the rest by right of wanting it and intending to have it.” Hence his appreciation of Abe Lincoln.
Foner deftly puts topics in their place in American conversation: ”If racial justice is an acceptable subject, class conflict is not.” He is frustrated by the lack conversation around class and mobility.
He profiles Sacco and Vanzetti (his first article for The Nation, requested by the publisher in a completely cold call to Foner) on the 50th anniversary of their totally shameful executions, despite appeals and huge protest marches, not to mention numerous eyewitnesses. His ease with storytelling shows through, as his long career of writing for The Nation testifies.
He looks at labor movements, the safety net, and a salute and request to Bernie Sanders in 2015. The salute was for making progressive issues and policies front and center for the first time in decades in the USA. The request was not to downplay American radicalism. There is no shame in being radical in America; it is only through the pressure of radicals that there is any movement at all, was Foner’s point. Wear it proudly; it’s the American way.
Contrast his appreciation of Sanders with his criticism of Obama. He saw Obama as just more of the same. Same faces, same voices, and no new ideas. This was ironic because Obama was supposedly all about change. Foner was not the only one to recognize the hopelessness of Obama’s choices of who to listen to, and when asked about change, he simply declared that he was the change. Not helpful. And little to show for eight years in power.
The book consists of 27 such pieces, plus a concluding interview of Foner by The Nation’s Assistant Editor. The sheer variety of topics is wonderful, but the color and depth Foner adds to them ensures his work will long outlast him.
David Wineberg… (more)