Hartman Hotz Lecturer to Examine Abraham Lincoln’s Views on Slavery

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Professor Eric Foner, the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, will speak on “Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and Slavery” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, in the E.J. Ball Courtroom in the Leflar Law Center as part of the University of Arkansas Hartman Hotz Lectures in Law and Liberal Arts.

Foner, who has served as president of the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association and the Society of American Historians, is renowned for his work on the history of politics, ideology and race in the United States. He has published numerous books, including Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction and Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, which won both the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes, as well as the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

“He is a cutting-edge scholar and a prominent public historian who is not afraid to shy away from controversial subjects,” said Jeannie Whayne, professor of history in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

In addition to his voluminous record of publication, Foner has distinguished himself as an outstanding teacher, winning awards at his university as well as regionally and lecturing abroad from Oxford and Cambridge to the University of Moscow. He has served on the editorial boards of Past and Present and The Nation and appeared on programs from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to All Things Considered on National Public Radio.

Foner, who recently published Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World, will address the evolution of the 16th president's views on the place of African Americans within the polity.