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Revision as of 01:15, 15 February 2005 by User2004 (talk | contribs) (fmt, fix link, Does he call himself neo-marxist?)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Eric Foner is a leading historian specializing in nineteenth century American history, the American Civil War and Reconstruction. He earned his BA from Columbia University in 1964 and his PhD in 1969. He is now a professor at his alma mater, distinguished as the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History.
Professor Foner's published books include Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (1970), Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (1976), Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War (1980), Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy (1983), Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988), Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction (1993), and The Story of American Freedom (1998), and Who Owns History? Rethinking the Past in a Changing World (2002). His survey textbook of American history, Give Me Liberty! An American History and a companion volume of documents, Voices of Freedom, will appear in 2004. In 2000, he served as President of the American Historical Association. He has also served as an Op-Ed writer for the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Nation and several other publications
Foner is considered one of today's most prominent scholars on the American Civil War and the Reconstruction period. He is also a widely published historian of racial, gender and other social issues.
Criticism
Foner's political philosophy, which often form the basis of an underlying historiography to his work, is purported by his critics critics to be neo-Marxist, and in his youth he was quite interested in Soviet politics (he especially admired Mikhail Gorbachev). These views have given rise to his nickname "Eric the Red" among critics of his work. He is often criticized by the political right as un-American for his original and unconventional works that challenge the ideal American history.