CBH Talk | Eric Foner and Andrew Delbanco Discuss “Our Fragile Freedoms”
Join two of our nation’s most distinguished historians for a searching conversation about freedom, democracy, and the lessons of the past. Eric Foner’s newest collection of essays, Our Fragile Freedoms, serves as the springboard for an intimate exchange with Andrew Delbanco. Together, these two towering scholars explore the Civil War and Reconstruction as essential touchstones for understanding today’s convulsions around race, inequality, and political polarization—while also confronting the heated debates over how history itself is taught.
As Foner reminds us, the polarization, prejudice, and challenges to democratic norms we face today are not without precedent. Drawing on the historical record, he illuminates how the legacies of slavery—our nation’s “original unhealed wound”—continue to shape our politics, and how the impulse to deny that history has long undermined progress. His perspective offers both caution and clarity, revealing patterns that echo across centuries.
Freedom in America has always been a birthright for some and a hard-won struggle for others. The rights gained are never guaranteed—they can be lost if not defended with knowledge, vigilance, and civic courage. Join us for this rare opportunity to hear two eminent voices reflect on the past in order to better navigate the urgent crises of the present.
Participants
Eric Foner's indelible works include the landmark history, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution; a bestselling 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. The DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, Foner continues to write frequently for The Nation and other publications.
He is one of only two persons to serve as President of the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians. He has also been the curator of several museum exhibitions, including the prize-winning "A House Divided: America in the Age of Lincoln," at the Chicago Historical Society.
Eric Foner photo courtesy of Lynn Garafola
Andrew Delbanco is Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and president of the Teagle Foundation. His most recent book, The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul, a New York Times notable book, was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf prize for “books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity,” the Lionel Trilling Award, and the Mark Lynton History Prize, sponsored by the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation at Harvard.
Among his other books, Melville: His World and Work was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in biography. College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be, has been translated into several languages. His essays appear in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and other periodicals, on topics ranging from American literature and history to contemporary issues in higher education.
Professor Delbanco has been a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2001. In 2006 he was honored with the Great Teacher Award by the Society of Columbia Graduates. In 2012, he was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. In 2013 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 2021 and 2022 he served as president of the Society of American Historians.
