Eric Foner Books
Eric Foner is an American historian and professor emeritus at Columbia University, renowned for his scholarship on the Civil War, Reconstruction, and American political history. He has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Lincoln Prize, and is widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on nineteenth-century America.
Known for: The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
Books by Eric Foner
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
In this Pulitzer Prize–winning work, historian Eric Foner traces Abraham Lincoln’s evolving views on slavery and race, exploring how his moral and political thinking developed in response to the turbulent events of the Civil War era. Drawing on extensive archival research, Foner portrays Lincoln as a pragmatic yet principled leader whose understanding of freedom and equality deepened over time, culminating in his decisive role in the abolition of slavery.
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Early Life and Political Beginnings
Lincoln’s youth in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois formed the soil from which his early ideas about slavery sprouted. Born into poverty in a region where slavery’s shadow was ever-present, he saw its effects not as an abstract moral problem but as a social reality that distorted the promise of oppor...
From The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
Lincoln and the Whig Party
Lincoln’s deep affiliation with the Whig Party shaped his worldview profoundly. The Whig ideology rested on the faith that material and moral progress could go hand in hand, that society advanced through industry, education, and civic virtue. Lincoln absorbed these beliefs wholeheartedly. He saw lab...
From The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
About Eric Foner
Eric Foner is an American historian and professor emeritus at Columbia University, renowned for his scholarship on the Civil War, Reconstruction, and American political history. He has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Lincoln Prize, and is widely re...
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Eric Foner is an American historian and professor emeritus at Columbia University, renowned for his scholarship on the Civil War, Reconstruction, and American political history. He has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Lincoln Prize, and is widely re...
Eric Foner is an American historian and professor emeritus at Columbia University, renowned for his scholarship on the Civil War, Reconstruction, and American political history. He has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Lincoln Prize, and is widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on nineteenth-century America.
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Eric Foner is an American historian and professor emeritus at Columbia University, renowned for his scholarship on the Civil War, Reconstruction, and American political history. He has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Lincoln Prize, and is widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on nineteenth-century America.
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