Our Fragile Freedoms: Essays

Eric Foner has done more to shape the public and professional understanding of American history than any other scholar. The preeminent historian of the Civil War era, Foner's keynote has been American freedom and its changing meanings and boundaries. We see in his award-winning works how freedom has been a birthright for some and a struggle for others, that rights gained can also be lost, that they must always be tended with knowledge and vigilance.

This volume collects fifty-eight of Foner's more recent reviews and commentaries. Together they show the range of his interests and expertise, running from slavery and antislavery through the disunion and remaking of the United States in the nineteenth century, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement, and into our own political moment. Each piece shows a master at work, melding historical knowledge and balanced judgment with fine prose.