Eric Foner

When I think about the 1870 riot, I remember how the country rejected the opportunity it had.

As Presidents' Day approaches, historians look back at the most notable recent uses and misuses of "the Great Emancipator's" words.

The Texas senator claims to be moved by the spirit of 1876, but he’s just another huckster playing a risky game with democracy.

Because the 19th-century college president appeared white, he was able to climb the ladder of the Jesuit community.

The backstory to the backstory of America’s mythic promise.

History is not kind to those who divide and dither.

The Editor of the American Historical Review weighs in on recent historiographical debates around the New York Times' 1619 Project.

Betrayal. Paranoia. Cowardice. We've been here before.

No belief in the history of the US has been more threatening to democracy than the certainty that only white people are fit for self-government.

During Reconstruction, true citizenship finally seemed in reach for black Americans. Then their dreams were dismantled.

Nearly two decades ago, historians embraced a hugely wasteful federal education program. It’s past time to reckon with that.

He “put the history of slavery at the center of our understanding of American history.”

Although he was denied his House seat, Menard continued his activism with the goal of uniting people across the Western Hemisphere.

How the state’s past spurred a racial reckoning.

How the classic film helped promote a Reconstruction myth that was central to the maintenance of Jim Crow.

Americans should build this pivotal post–Civil War era into the new politics of historical memory.

The battle against the remnants of Confederate sentiment is a battle against both white supremacy and class rule.

The recent unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, after a white-supremacist rally has stoked some Americans’ fears of a new civil war.

The legend of the Confederate leader’s heroism and decency is based in the fiction of a person who never existed.

During the late 19th century, blacks and whites in the South lived closer together than they do today.