The Pulitzer-winning historian of the civil war and Reconstruction considers one way in which some hope the former president can be stopped from retaking office
“The validity of the public debt of the United States,” the 14th Amendment declares, “shall not be questioned.” If Congressional Republicans violate this, President Biden, acting along, should do as the Constitution requires.
Historian Eric Foner on the long tradition of white nationalists clashing with Black people exercising their rights.
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Charting the ironies of freedom won and lost during and after the Civil War, Eric Foner, the American historian, has also helped us better understand the ambiguous consequences of what were almost always only partial victories.
Racism is part of the Trump family DNA.
Eric Foner, who recently retired from Columbia University, has focused much of his work on the Civil War and its aftermath. Foner’s work deftly chronicles what he calls “a usable past.” This isn’t history as propaganda, but, in Foner’s words, “a historical consciousness that can enable us to address the problems of society today in an intelligent manner.”
The discussion of democratic socialism should embrace our own American radical tradition. There’s nothing wrong with Denmark; we can learn a few things from them (and vice-versa). But we should talk first of all about our radical forebears here in the United States, for the most successful radicals have always spoken the language of American society and appealed to some of its deepest values.
Eric Foner on the abolitionists, Reconstruction, and winning “freedom” from the Right.
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