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Eric Foner
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A ‘Wary Faith’ in the Courts
A groundbreaking new book demonstrates that even during the days of slavery, African Americans knew a lot more about legal principles than has been imagined.
by
Eric Foner
via
New York Review of Books
on
March 14, 2024
Searching for the Perfect Republic
On the 14th amendment – and if it might stop Trump.
by
Eric Foner
,
Ted Widmer
via
The Guardian
on
November 15, 2023
The Confederate General Whom All the Other Confederates Hated
James Longstreet became a champion of Reconstruction. Why?
by
Eric Foner
via
The Atlantic
on
November 13, 2023
Defanged
A journalistic view of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, work, and representation in American society.
by
Eric Foner
via
London Review of Books
on
September 28, 2023
Seeing Was Not Believing
A new book identifies the 1968 Democratic convention as the moment when broad public regard for the news media gave way to widespread distrust, and American divisiveness took off.
by
Eric Foner
via
New York Review of Books
on
August 30, 2023
Martin Luther King’s Dream at 60
King offered Americans the choice between acting in accordance with the Constitution and resistance to change. In many ways, we face the same choice today.
by
Eric Foner
via
The Nation
on
August 28, 2023
The Little Man’s Big Friends
A new book seeks to explain why many Americans, especially but not exclusively in the South, have understood freedom as an entitlement for white people.
by
Eric Foner
via
London Review of Books
on
May 24, 2023
A Regional Reign of Terror
Most Americans now grasp that violence was essential to the functioning of slavery, but a new book excavates the brutality of everyday Black life in the Jim Crow South.
by
Eric Foner
via
New York Review of Books
on
March 16, 2023
Double V: Military Racism
Today, the military is perhaps the largest integrated institution in the US. But how it came to be this way reveals a history of racism and resistance.
by
Eric Foner
via
London Review of Books
on
February 22, 2023
War Fever
The crusade against civil liberties during World War I.
by
Eric Foner
via
The Nation
on
February 7, 2023
“Originalism Is Intellectually Indefensible”
On the persistent myth of the colorblind Constitution that the Supreme Court's conservatives have embraced.
by
Eric Foner
,
Cristian Farias
via
Balls And Strikes
on
October 28, 2022
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Eric Foner’s Story of American Freedom
Eric Foner has helped us better understand the ambiguous consequences of what were almost always only partial victories.
by
Michael Kazin
via
The Nation
on
December 2, 2019
The Radicalism of Thaddeus Stevens
Thaddeus Stevens understood far better than most that fully uprooting slavery meant overthrowing the South’s economic system and challenging property rights.
by
Matthew E. Stanley
via
Jacobin
on
March 1, 2021
A Disputed Election, a Constitutional Crisis, Polarisation… Welcome to 1876
Eric Foner sees parallels with our own time but warns that yesterday’s solution would be a disaster.
by
Martin Pengelly
via
The Guardian
on
August 23, 2020
Racist Litter
A review of Eric Foner's The Second Founding.
by
Randall Kennedy
via
London Review of Books
on
July 30, 2020
An Unfinished Revolution
A new three-part PBS documentary explores the failure of Reconstruction and the Redemption of the South.
by
James Oakes
via
New York Review of Books
on
November 21, 2019
The Achievements, and Compromises, of Two Reconstruction-era Amendments
While they advanced African American rights, they had serious flaws, Eric Foner writes.
by
John Fabian Witt
via
Washington Post
on
October 31, 2019
Why We Need a New Civil War Documentary
The success and brilliance of the new PBS series on Reconstruction is a reminder of the missed opportunity facing the nation.
by
Keri Leigh Merritt
via
Smithsonian
on
April 23, 2019
Welcome to the Second Redemption
The accomplishments of the first black president will be erased by a man who rose to power on slandering him.
by
Adam Serwer
via
The Atlantic
on
November 10, 2016
A Topic Best Avoided
After the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln faced the issue of sorting out a nation divided over the issue of freed slaves. But what were his views on it?
by
Nicholas Guyatt
via
London Review of Books
on
December 1, 2011
The Perfectionist Tradition
The African American perfectionists offered “faith” instead of “hope”—emphasizing the struggle to realize a vision of justice.
by
William P. Jones
via
Dissent
on
February 6, 2024
The Case for Disqualification
Three years later, amid another national election, the American public is still slow to understand the enormity of January 6, 2021.
by
Sean Wilentz
via
New York Review of Books
on
January 30, 2024
partner
Fights Over American Democracy Reach Back to the Founding Era
In early America, the soaring ideals behind establishing a new democracy were marked by cycles of progress and backlash.
via
Retro Report
on
January 4, 2024
A Brief History of the Ku Klux Klan Acts
These 1870s laws to protect Black voters, ignored for decades, now being used against Trump.
by
Joseph Kelly
via
The Conversation
on
August 4, 2023
Who Is History For?
What happens when radical historians write for the public.
by
David Waldstreicher
via
Boston Review
on
July 25, 2023
Howard Zinn and the Politics of Popular History
The controversial historian drew criticism from both left and right. We need more like him today.
by
Nick Witham
via
The Chronicle of Higher Education
on
July 17, 2023
How Could ‘Freedmen’ Be a Race-Neutral Term?
An opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas exposed the limits of originalism.
by
Adam Serwer
via
The Atlantic
on
July 7, 2023
American Charivari
The history and context of the made-up aesthetics of the early Ku Klux Klan.
by
Devin Thomas O’Shea
via
Lapham’s Quarterly
on
April 24, 2023
Grappling With the Overthrow of Reconstruction
Two new books ask us to shift our attention away from the white vigilantes of Jim Crow and instead focus on what it meant for the survivors.
by
Eric Herschthal
via
The New Republic
on
March 23, 2023
Abraham Lincoln Is a Hero of the Left
Leftists have regarded Lincoln as a pro-labor hero who helped vanquish chattel slavery. We should celebrate him today within the radical democratic tradition.
by
Matthew E. Stanley
via
Jacobin
on
February 20, 2023
partner
A Post-Reconstruction Proposal That Would Have Restored Power to the People
Largely forgotten today, Albion W. Tourgée’s legislation could have prevented Moore v. Harper.
by
Brook Thomas
via
Made by History
on
December 19, 2022
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