The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
Eric Foner
(Author)
Description
An authoritative history by the preeminent scholar of the Civil War era, The Second Founding traces the arc of the three foundational Reconstruction amendments from their origins in antebellum activism and adoption amidst intense postwar politics to their virtual nullification by narrow Supreme Court decisions and Jim Crow state laws. Today these amendments remain strong tools for achieving the American ideal of equality, if only we will take them up.
Product Details
Price
$17.95
$16.69
Publisher
W. W. Norton & Company
Publish Date
August 11, 2020
Pages
304
Dimensions
5.5 X 8.3 X 0.8 inches | 0.5 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780393358520
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About the Author
Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University. In his teaching and scholarship, he focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, slavery, and nineteenth-century America. He has served as president of the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association. In 2006, he received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia University. His most recent books are The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, winner of the Bancroft and Lincoln Prizes and the Pulitzer Prize for History; Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, winner of the New York Historical Society Book Prize; and The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution.
Reviews
Disciplined, powerful and moving.... [An] important book.--Lincoln Caplan
Lucid and succinct.--John Fabian Witt
Sometimes a book makes you reconsider a subject you've studied all of your adult life.--Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent
As the dean of Reconstruction studies, Foner is the ideal scholar to produce a history of the three amendments added to the Constitution during the period--amendments so powerful as to justify the book's title.--James Oakes
Mr. Foner makes his case with brio and erudition.--Fergus M. Bordewich
In this moment, indeed in any, Eric Foner's new book is uncommonly valuable.--W. Fitzhugh Brundage
The Second Founding... demonstrates [Foner's] talent at unearthing insights about the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, in particular how Americans defined and acted on the ideals of freedom and democracy.... [He writes] in what another eminent historian, Christopher Lasch, called 'plain style' direct and vivid prose without a trace of specialized language, which anyone with a passing interest in the subject can read, learn from, and enjoy.--Michael Kazin
Lucid and succinct.--John Fabian Witt
Sometimes a book makes you reconsider a subject you've studied all of your adult life.--Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent
As the dean of Reconstruction studies, Foner is the ideal scholar to produce a history of the three amendments added to the Constitution during the period--amendments so powerful as to justify the book's title.--James Oakes
Mr. Foner makes his case with brio and erudition.--Fergus M. Bordewich
In this moment, indeed in any, Eric Foner's new book is uncommonly valuable.--W. Fitzhugh Brundage
The Second Founding... demonstrates [Foner's] talent at unearthing insights about the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, in particular how Americans defined and acted on the ideals of freedom and democracy.... [He writes] in what another eminent historian, Christopher Lasch, called 'plain style' direct and vivid prose without a trace of specialized language, which anyone with a passing interest in the subject can read, learn from, and enjoy.--Michael Kazin
