Eric Foner
Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, is one of the most prominent historians in the United States. He is the author or editor of over twenty books concentrating on the intersections of intellectual, political and social history and the history of American race relations. His most recent book, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History, the Bancroft Prize and the Lincoln Prize. He is also the author of Give Me Liberty!: An American History, a widely-used survey textbook of U.S. history published by W. W. Norton.
Professor Foner is one of only two persons to serve as president of the three major professional organizations: the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, and Society of American Historians. Additionally, he is the recipient of the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia University. As co-curator of two award-winning historical exhibitions, and through frequent appearances in news media and now this online series, he has endeavored throughout his career to bring historical knowledge to the Columbia community and to a broad public outside the university. His latest work is Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad.
Tim Shenk (Teaching Assistant)
Timothy Shenk, chief teaching assistant for this series, is a graduate student in history at Columbia University. His writings have appeared in the Nation, Dissent, and Jacobin, among other venues, and he is the author of Maurice Dobb: Political Economist.
Tim graduated with honors in history from Columbia College in 2007. At Columbia, he chaired the College’s Academic Awards Committee, served as opinion editor and managing editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator, and was founding editor of The Eye, a weekly magazine published by the Spectator. From 2007 to 2009, Tim attended the University of Cambridge on a Kellett Fellowship. He received an MPhil in Historical Studies with distinguished performance for a dissertation on “Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and The New-York Tribune, 1851-1861.” Tim was also a Prize Research Student at the Centre for History and Economics and winner of a Mellon Prize Research Grant.
At the time of the original release of this course (2014), he was studying on a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship writing a dissertation, tentatively titled “Inventing the American Economy, 1917-1981,” which examines the emergence of the economy as a subject of economic knowledge and object of policy intervention over the 20th century. The project has grown out of a larger concern with braiding together political economy with the history of the political. Tim is also interested in the relationship between history and other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences—more specifically, with using history to enrich social theory.
Thai Jones (Primary Sources Curator)
Thai Jones studies the history of radical social movements. He is the author of two books. The latest, More Powerful Than Dynamite: Radicals, Plutocrats, Progressives, and New York's Year of Anarchy (Bloomsbury, 2014), rediscovers a forgotten political crisis that roiled New York City in the early twentieth century. His first book, A Radical Line: From the Labor Movement to the Weather Underground, One Family's Century of Conscience (Free Press, 2004), explored his own family’s long history of political dissent against the backdrop of twentieth century protest and activism. Before becoming Lehman Curator, Jones was an assistant professor of history at the Bard College Master of Arts in Teaching Program. Formerly a reporter for Newsday, his writings have appeared in a variety of national publications, ranging from the New York Times to The Nation, to the Occupied Wall Street Journal.
The Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML) is Columbia University’s principal repository for primary source collections. The range of collections in RBML span more than 4,000 years and comprise rare printed works, cylinder seals, cuneiform tablets, papyri, and Coptic ostraca; medieval and renaissance manuscripts; as well as art and realia. Some 500,000 printed books and 14 miles of manuscripts, personal papers, and records form the core of the RBML holdings.
The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) partners with faculty, students, and colleagues across the University to support excellence and innovation in teaching and learning. The CTL is committed to advancing the culture of teaching and learning for professional development, curricular enhancement, and academic support through its programs, services, and resources. For more information, please visit ctl.columbia.edu.
The design, production, and distribution of "The Civil War and Reconstruction" series was generously supported by the Office of the Provost, Columbia University. Provost: John H. Coatsworth.
CTL Production Team (2020 enhancement and revisions): Maurice Matiz, Meesha Meksin.
CTL Production Team (2018 self-pace release): Kyle Bean, Andrew Flatgard, Jose Diaz, Maurice Matiz.
CCNMTL's original production team included: Michael Cennamo, Jose Diaz, Peter Kaufman, Stephanie Ogden, Lucy Appert, Maurice Matiz, Marc Raymond.