Eric Foner - WHO OWNS HISTORY?

Eric Foner of Columbia University is my favorite historian.  His work is in the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Abraham Lincoln.  It was exciting to hear him lecture at UAB last November.

Here is a collection of essays published in 2002.  I enjoyed it very much.

I am amused to read that as a child Foner wanted to be an astronomer.  I wish I had read this before seeing him in person.  Coulda asked him if he regretted not being an astronomer!

Foner talks about how he accidentally got into the reconstruction era after early on writing a book on Tom Paine.  He provides a mini-history of his mentor Richard Hofstadter. 

Professor Foner asks the question, "Who is an American?"  This is a complex and not a simple question.  The amazing thing is that this country is still trying to answer this question.

Foner is the best historian for detailing the raw deal that blacks have lived under in this country.  The US has yet fulfill its promise of equality.