The Fiery Trial

Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

By Eric Foner; Norman Dietz (Narrator)
(Tantor Media, Compact Disc, 9781400149605)

Publication Date: October 2010

Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover, Paperback, Compact Disc, MP3 CD

Categories: Slavery, Presidents & Heads of State, United States - Civil War

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Eric Foner is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, where he earned his B.A. and Ph.D. He has written a number of books on the Civil War and Reconstruction, slavery, and nineteenth-century America, including Forever Free and Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men. His Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 won the Bancroft, Parkman, and Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and remains the standard history of the period. In 2006, Eric received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching at Columbia University. He has served as president of the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Society of American Historians. Norman Dietz is a writer, an actor, and a solo performer. Since 1962, he has toured coast to coast, presenting his work before audiences all over the United States and Canada. He is the author of the comic novel Nailing It, as well as Fables & Vaudevilles & Plays and The Lifeguard and the Mermaid, collections of his work for the stage. Norman has also performed frequently on radio and television, and he has recorded over 150 audiobooks, many of which have earned him awards from AudioFile magazine, the ALA, and Publishers Weekly. Additionally, AudioFile named Norman one of the Best Voices of the Century. He lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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Politicians love to invoke Honest Abe Lincoln, often while twisting his legacy to fit their own purposes. But who was the man, really? Steve Inskeep talks to three Lincoln historians � Andy Ferguson, of the Weekly Standard, and Doris Kearns Goodwin and Eric Foner � about the books they think best capture the former president's character. (This piece initially aired April 10, 2012 on Morning Edition.) More at NPR.org

Abraham Lincoln always thought slavery was unjust � but struggled with what to do once slavery ended. Historian Eric Foner traces how Lincoln's thoughts about slavery � and freed slaves � mirrored America's own transformation in The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. More at NPR.org

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"[A] searching portrait." ---Publishers Weekly