The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution

Eric Foner is a renowned Civil War and Reconstruction historian. He is a Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, which he attended for his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees. His works include Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (1970), Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (1988), and Give Me Liberty! An American History (2004). His books deal primarily with the issues of freedom, liberty, and the Constitution. In addition to publishing books, he also published an online course called “The Civil War and Reconstruction” through edX. Foner is a public scholar and often writes articles, essays, and tweets commenting on current events through the lens of the legacy of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) served as 16th president of the United States. Before his presidency, Lincoln served as a state legislator in Illinois and was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1846. Elected in 1860 as the first Republican president on a platform of anti-slavery expansion, his election prompted the secession of several Southern states, leading to the outbreak of the Civil War. While Lincoln only promised to stop the spread of slavery, Southerners saw this as an existential threat to their economy and way of life.