Name: The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
ISBN: 9780393358520

The co-op bookstore for avid readers

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

Eric Foner

Paperback

Regular price$17.95With free membership trial$8.9850% off your first book+ Free shipping

In Stock– Ships within one business day

Do you recommend this book?

Yes!

Critic Reviews

Good

Based on 12 reviews on

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.

Book Details

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publish Date: Aug 11st, 2020
Pages: 304
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.50in - 0.80in - 0.50lb
EAN: 9780393358520
Categories: • United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877)• Constitutions• Constitutional

More books to explore

Book Cover for: The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896, Richard White

Book Cover for: The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn

Book Cover for: Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders, Dennis C. Rasmussen

Book Cover for: The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, Robert S. Levine

Book Cover for: The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America, Edward L. Ayers

Book Cover for: Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction, Fergus M. Bordewich

Book Cover for: Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War, Roger Lowenstein

Book Cover for: Stanton: Lincoln's War Secretary, Walter Stahr

Book Cover for: American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873, Alan Taylor

Book Cover for: Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy, Donald L. Miller

Book Cover for: Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War, S. C. Gwynne

Book Cover for: A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House, Jonathan W. White

Book Cover for: The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution, James Oakes

Book Cover for: Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union, Richard Kreitner

About the Author

Foner, Eric: - Eric Foner's indelible works include a best-selling study of Lincoln and slavery, The Fiery Trial, winner of the Pulitzer, Bancroft, and Lincoln prizes, and an influential history of the Reconstruction amendments, The Second Founding. He lives in New York City.

More books by Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Reconstruction Updated Edition: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition], Eric Foner

Book Cover for: The Story of American Freedom, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Freedom Road, Howard Fast

Book Cover for: Battles for Freedom: The Use and Abuse of American History, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction (Revised), Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War with a New Introductory Essay (Revised), Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Who Owns History?: Rethinking the Past in a Changing World, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Tom Paine and Revolutionary America, Eric Foner

Book Cover for: Slavery's Ghost: The Problem of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation, Walter Johnson

Book Cover for: The New American History, Eric Foner

What people are saying

Edward L. Ayers

@edward_l_ayers

5 years

Historian of the American South, pioneer and advocate of digital history. Current projects: @newamericanhist @bunkhistory @UR_DSL @americanpano @ACWMuseum

Just interviewed Eric Foner for @BackStoryRadio about his new book: "The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution." Makes clear the power that 13th, 14th, 15th amendments still have to change the future. Important, exciting stuff, out next wk!

Leading innovations in education for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network @UNSDSN | Open Education Resources (OER) #SDGs #2030Agenda

In September, the Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs will discuss "The Second Founding” (@wwnorton) by historian Eric Foner, @CUHistoryDept! Join us for this fascinating look at the legacy of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the #USConstitution 👉 https://t.co/7DZO1sjjiX https://t.co/L5x6GGz89b

Academic, Catholic theologian, Apple geek. Fan of cats and coffee. Husband to the fantabulous Emily (@viola_illyria).

Finished reading: The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution by Eric Foner 📚Learned some things. https://t.co/aigG3P8sex

twitter.com

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

Disciplined, powerful and moving.... [An] important book.--Lincoln Caplan "New York Times Book Review"

Lucid and succinct.--John Fabian Witt "Washington Post"

Sometimes a book makes you reconsider a subject you've studied all of your adult life.--Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent "New York Times"

Brisk but far-reaching.... [C]opies of this book should be spread around the capital, because the battles of contemporary Washington are but a second act to the struggles prompted by Foner's Second Founding.--David M. Shribman "Boston Globe"

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 "Nation"

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 "New York Review of Books"

Mr. Foner makes his case with brio and erudition.--Fergus M. Bordewich "Wall Street Journal"

In this moment, indeed in any, Eric Foner's new book is uncommonly valuable.--W. Fitzhugh Brundage "Washington Examiner"

With The Second Founding, Foner offers a taut, absorbing companion piece to his magisterial Reconstruction, published three decades ago.--Hamilton Cain "Minneapolis Star Tribune"

[The Second Founding] should land on the desk of every federal jurist.... [It] presents a sobering picture of the use and misuse of history in legal battles over race. But it is hopeful too. Change is possible with more truthful and expansive historical knowledge.--Amy Murrell Taylor "Times Literary Supplement"

What people are saying

Edward L. Ayers

@edward_l_ayers

5 years

Historian of the American South, pioneer and advocate of digital history. Current projects: @newamericanhist @bunkhistory @UR_DSL @americanpano @ACWMuseum

Leading innovations in education for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network @UNSDSN | Open Education Resources (OER) #SDGs #2030Agenda

twitter.com

Get 30% off your first purchase

When you sign up for our popular newsletter (unsubscribe anytime).