Eric Foner

Events: The 2012 Ruth Ratner Miller Award (Tickets: Adults $15, Students Free)

Book: The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

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Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, is one of this country’s most prominent historians. He received his doctoral degree at Columbia under the supervision of Richard Hofstadter. He is one of only two persons to serve as president of the three major professional organizations: the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians, and one of a handful to have won the Bancroft and Pulitzer Prizes in the same year.

Professor Foner’s publications have concentrated on the intersections of intellectual, political and social history, and the history of American race relations. His most recent book, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, was published in the fall of 2010 and won the Bancroft Prize, the Pulitzer Prize for History, and the Lincoln Prize. This landmark work provides a definitive account of Lincoln’s lifelong engagement with the nation’s critical issue — American slavery. Drawing Lincoln and the broader history of the period into perfect balance, Foner portrays a pragmatic politician grounded in principle, deftly navigating the dynamic politics of antislavery, secession and civil war. Lincoln’s greatness emerges from his capacity for moral and political growth.

Professor Foner is a winner of the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates (1991), and the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching at Columbia University (2006). In 2006, he received the Kidger Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship from the New England History Teachers Association. He has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including Charlie Rose, Book Notes, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, and Bill Moyers Journal. He was the on-camera historian for “Freedom: A History of Us,” on PBS in 2003.