The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

by Eric Foner

Overview

“A masterwork [by] the preeminent historian of the Civil War era.”—Boston Globe

Selected as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, this landmark work gives us a definitive account of Lincoln's lifelong engagement with the nation's critical issue: American slavery. A master historian, Eric Foner draws Lincoln and the broader history of the period into perfect balance. We see Lincoln, a pragmatic politician grounded in principle, deftly navigating the dynamic politics of antislavery, secession, and civil war. Lincoln's greatness emerges from his capacity for moral and political growth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393340662
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/26/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

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.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

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

Editorial Reviews

Moving and rewarding. . . . A master historian at work.

David W. Blight - San Francisco Chronicle

Do we need another book on Lincoln? Yes, we do—if the book is by so richly informed a commentator as Eric Foner.

David S. Reynolds - The New York Times Book Review

No one else has written about [Lincoln's] trajectory of change with such balance, fairness, depth of analysis, and lucid precision of language.

James M. McPherson - New York Review of Books

Do we need another book on Lincoln? Yes, we do—if the book is by so richly informed a commentator as Eric Foner.”— David S. Reynolds

The New York Times Book Review

No one else has written about [Lincoln's] trajectory of change with such balance, fairness, depth of analysis, and lucid precision of language.”— James M. McPherson

New York Review of Books

Moving and rewarding. . . . A master historian at work.”— David W. Blight

San Francisco Chronicle

The value of Eric Foner's The Fiery Trial lies in its comprehensive review of mostly familiar material; in its sensible evaluation of the full range of information already available about Abraham Lincoln and slavery; and in the deft thoroughness of its scholarship. The Fiery Trial does well what has already been done before "but ne'er so well expressed."
—The Washington Post

Fred Kaplan

Do we need yet another book on Lincoln…Well, yes, we do—if the book is by so richly informed a commentator as Eric Foner…[he] tackles what would seem to be an obvious topic, Lincoln and slavery, and manages to cast new light on it…Because of his broad-ranging knowledge of the 19th century, Foner is able to provide the most thorough and judicious account of Lincoln's attitudes toward slavery that we have to date…More cogently than any previous historian, Foner examines the political events that shaped Lincoln and ultimately brought out his true greatness.
—The New York Times

David S. Reynolds

"A well orchestrated examination of Lincoln’s changing views of slavery, bringing unforeseeable twists and a fresh sense of improbability to a familiar story."

The 2011 Pulitzer Prize Committee

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

From the Publisher

Renowned scholar Foner (History/Columbia Univ.; Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction,2005, etc.) adroitly traces how personal conviction and force of circumstance guided Abraham Lincoln toward the radical step of emancipation.

The author's observation that Lincoln was slow "to begin to glimpse the possibility of racial equality in America" will come as no surprise to academics, but this impressionist portrait of the president vividly details an unexpected aspect of this famous life—how Lincoln pursued his destiny within the larger antislavery movement, a broad-based network of pressure groups that encompassed everything from abolitionists, who insisted on social and political equality, to racists, who loathed the presence of blacks as a social and economic threat. In the 1850s, Lincoln re-entered politics by identifying containment of the "peculiar institution's" westward expansion as "the lowest common denominator of antislavery sentiment." Foner is 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.While many key events in the legendary career are examined—e.g., the debates with Stephen A. Douglas—other formerly unnoticed aspects appear in unexpected bold relief—e.g., a thriving Illinois legal practice in which only 34 cases out of 5,000 involved African-Americans. Lincoln's assassination left unanswered how he would have integrated freed slaves into American society. But Foner's summary of his qualities—"intellectually curious, willing to listen to criticism, attuned to the currents of northern public opinion, and desirous of getting along with Congress"—leaves little doubt that he would have managed Reconstruction better than his haplessly stubborn successor, Andrew Johnson.

Look elsewhere for an understanding of the president as person, but linger here for an indispensable analysis of Lincoln navigating through the treacherous political currents of his times.

Kirkus Reviews