The Second Founding

[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 With The Second Founding, Foner offers a taut, absorbing companion piece to his magisterial Reconstruction, published three decades ago. -- Hamilton Cain - Minneapolis Star Tribune In this moment, indeed in any, Eric Foner's new book is uncommonly valuable. -- W. Fitzhugh Brundage - Washington Examiner Mr. Foner makes his case with brio and erudition. -- Fergus M. Bordewich - Wall Street Journal 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 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 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 Sometimes a book makes you reconsider a subject you've studied all of your adult life. -- Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent - New York Times Lucid and succinct. -- John Fabian Witt - Washington Post Disciplined, powerful and moving.... [An] important book. -- Lincoln Caplan - New York Times Book Review