Part of month-long celebration of Abraham Lincoln
The historian who captured the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for history in 2011 will bring his expertise to Genesee Community College in October, while the Batavia campus will simultaneously host a traveling exhibit exploring the life of Abraham Lincoln.
Columbia University history professor and author Dr. Eric Foner, regarded as the leading contemporary historian of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, will share insights from his award-winning book The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery on Wednesday, October 10 at a free lecture in the Stuart Steiner Theatre at 1 p.m. Immediately following the lecture, Foner will sign copies of his book.
“I am thrilled at the prospect of having Dr. Foner visit GCC. It is not often you can rub elbows with a Pulitzer Prize winner,” says Derek Maxfield, who not only teaches GCC history courses, but has been the College’s resident historian and coordinator or numerous Civil War initiatives throughout the past 18 months. “As a historian, I recognize him as a giant in the field. His work on the Civil War and Reconstruction has shaped my own interpretation in important ways, and his newest book is destined to define the standards by which other works will be measured.”
Foner’s presentation coincides with an exhibit exploring Lincoln’s influence from the Civil War through modern times. Using personal journals, official documents and other printed materials, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History used a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to assemble, Abraham Lincoln: A Man of His Time, a Man for All Times. This display has been traveling the country and sharing the life, accomplishments and the legacy of the 16th U.S. president. Interestingly, Dr. Foner was among the experts consulted during the development phase of the exhibit. The display in GCC’s Alfred O’Connell Library will be open for free public viewing from October 1 through 28.
The Fiery Trial is essentially a political biography of Lincoln, delving into the President’s personal convictions, and Foner “is able to provide the most thorough and judicious account of Lincoln’s attitudes toward slavery that we have to date,” according to a 2010 review in The New York Times. Kirkus Reviews cites Foner as “particularly impressive in explaining the hesitations, backward steps and trial balloons – including placating slaveholding border states and proposing colonizing blacks outside the United States – that preceded his embrace of emancipation.”
GCC history instructor and historian Derek Maxfield maintains a blog about campus Civil War programs at http://civilwaratgcc.wordpress.com/.
