Eric Foner

Eric Foner’s “A Short History of Reconstruction” is an updated, abridged edition of “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution.” This book redefines how the Reconstruction Era is viewed, in ways historians have not done before. Foner chronologically starts with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 to validate his statement that “Reconstruction was not only a specific time period, but also the beginning of an extended historical process: the adjustment of American society to the end of slavery.” Starting his novel with this allows him to stress “the Proclamation’s importance in uniting…grass-roots black activity and the newly empowered national state” and state that this period is the beginning of “the adjustment of American society to…

This book closely examines Lincoln's writings and speeches and avoids direct engagement with previous Lincoln historians. Eric Foner stated that "His intent is to return Lincoln to his historical setting, tracing the evolution of his ideas in the context of the broad antislavery impulse and the unprecedented crisis the United States confronted during his adult life." (Foner prefacexvii) That being said, Foner said he wanted to isolate Lincoln's exact thinking on slavery at different times in his…

Eric Foner makes it well known that President Nixon did not get along with workers and some known reporters. In the section called, “Watergate” Eric Foner states, “He viewed every critic as a threat to national security and developed an enemies list, that included reporters.” When a President has foes and considers them enemies his job will become very hard and Americans can claim him as bias. Also, by having the mind set as a critic could really make world affairs a rough situation for Nixon.…

established equality between African-Americans and whites. The amendments had proved successful as many African-Americans were able to find jobs that previously only whites could do. In Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, the novel says, “By the end of Reconstruction, eighteen blacks had served as lieutenant governor, treasurer, superintendent of education, or secretary of state” (Foner 353). The statistics that the novel used showed how the Reconstruction Amendments had established…

Throughout the history of the United States, periods of radical change in political, legal, and economic systems have been referred to as “Reconstructions.” One of the most prominent was the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Another two periods of change included the New Deal enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 and the Civil Rights Movement starting in the 1950s. Both the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement should be considered reconstructions according to two…

The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner is a book about Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. Abraham Lincoln was perhaps one of the most influential American politicians of all time and served as the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln was born in Kentucky, where he was certainly surrounded by slavery being that one in every five people there was a slave. There was also slavery in Lincoln’s family, many of his relatives owned slaves. Such as his Uncle Isaac who owned forty three slaves at the…

In Gateway to Freedom, the Hidden History of the Underground Railroad by author Eric Foner, several issues are addressed including, the dangers of trying to escape, and the problems that were faced after finally escaping and leaving family behind. Throughout Gateway to Freedom, Foner’s main focus is on how the Underground Railroad worked, as well as how they thought they didn’t have to be as active as they had been in the past because a war was coming. The rise of the Abolitionist movement…

During Eric Foner progressive era once slavery had been abolished in the British Empire, the former mother country represented freedom more genuinely than the United States. Howard Zinn understood the commonsense understanding of what is realistic in any political moment is always slanted against activist. Eric Foner progressives believe big government is not bad but can be used for good. Conservatives believe big government will lead to tyranny. He also said that the progressive movement was a…

William Dunning and Eric Foner, Historians Evaluated Reconstruction on Basis of Their Background and Historical Context: Which Historian Is Better-supported? The interpretations of historians show the general views of that period. After the Civil war, so-called Reconstruction Era (1865-1877) brought notable change to American society and transformed role of the American government. William Dunning is a historian who lived throughout the Civil War to the post-Reconstruction period, in which…

The progressive era is believed to be a time of progress and effective progress at that. Yet, the views of Eric Foner and Howard Zinn seem to differ when given the opportunity to express how they feel about the progressive era. It seems like the subject wouldn’t be that hard to agree on, but oddly the two authors have two separate and very distinctive views on this particular era in American history. Eric Foner, the author of ‘Give Me Liberty’ believes that the progressive era lead up to its…