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Governor's Lecture in the Humanities
Pulitzer Prize winner Foner delivered Oct. 5 lecture
Historian Eric Foner delivered the 16th Annual Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities on Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha. The subject of the lecture was “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery,” the book for which Foner won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in history.
In awarding Foner this year’s history prize, the Pulitzer Prize committee cited the author for “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 Pulitzer Prize for history is awarded for a distinguished and appropriately documented book on the history of the United States and carries with it a cash award of $10,000. Earlier this year, the book received two other prestigious awards for history, the Lincoln Prize and the Bancroft Prize.
DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and author of several highly acclaimed books on the Civil War period, Foner also is the author of “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War,” widely considered a classic for its contribution to our understanding of the causes of the Civil War and the early ideology of the Republican Party, and “Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877,” which helped redefine how we view the successes and failures of the Reconstruction period following the Civil War.
Eric Foner has won the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia University, the Kidger Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship from the New England History Teachers Association, and was named Scholar of the Year by the New York Council for the Humanities. He serves on the editorial boards of Past and Present and The Nation, and has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, London Review of Books, and many other publications.
Proceeds from a sold-out benefit dinner before the lecture will help support NHC programming statewide. The lecture itself drew 800 people. Earlier in the day, Foner spoke to 80 students from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Immediately preceding the lecture the annual Sower Award was presented to community leader and former Omaha World-Herald publisher John Gottschalk.
Discussions focused on Foner’s Pulitzer Prize-winner
Two public discussions sponsored by the Nebraska Humanities Council focused on historian Eric Foner’s 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.” It is hoped that the events encouraged Nebraskans to read and talk about the book before Foner delivered the 16th Annual Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities on Oct. 5 at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha.
Winkle has a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and specializes in 19th century U.S. political, social, cultural, and military history. His award-winning books include “The Politics of Community: Migration and Politics in Antebellum Ohio,” “The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln,” and “The Oxford Atlas of the Civil War.” Jones has a doctorate from State University of New York with particular emphasis in American cultural and intellectual history and African American studies, with strong interests in race and representation, Atlantic studies, and science studies. She is author of “In Search of Brightest Africa: Reimagining the Dark Continent in American Culture, 1884-1936.”
Jerry Johnston, senior producer for NET Radio, moderated the discussion, which was sponsored by the Nebraska Humanities Council and Lincoln City Libraries. Mayor Chris Beutler offered welcoming remarks.
Another discussion was held at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Great Platte River Road Archway, just off Interstate 80 at exit 272 near Kearney. It featured Vernon Volpe, professor of history at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Volpe, who has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, joined the UNK history department in 1987, after teaching in Lincoln and at Texas A & M University.
Both events were free and open to the public.
Eric Foner to deliver 16th governor’s lecture Oct. 5
American historian Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and author of some of the most highly acclaimed books on the Civil War period, will deliver the 16th Annual Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities on Oct. 5 at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha. This year is the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.
Presented by the Nebraska Humanities Council and the University of Nebraska, the 7:30 p.m. lecture will explore the topic of Foner’s most recent book “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery,” which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and two other prestigious awards for history, the Lincoln Prize and the Bancroft Prize.
Foner also is the author of “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War,” widely considered a classic for its contribution to our understanding of the causes of the Civil War and the early ideology of the Republican Party, and “Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877,” which helped redefine how we view the successes and failures of the Reconstruction period following the Civil War.
Foner has won the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia University, the Kidger Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship from the New England History Teachers Association, and was named Scholar of the Year by the New York Council for the Humanities.
He serves on the editorial boards of Past and Present and The Nation, and has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, London Review of Books, and many other publications. He has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including “Charlie Rose,” “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” “The Colbert Report,” “Bill Moyers Journal,” “Fresh Air,” and “All Things Considered,” and in historical documentaries on PBS and the History Channel.
In a recent New York Times book review, distinguished author and professor David S. Reynolds wrote of Eric Foner: “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.”
Foner received his doctoral degree at Columbia, and is only the second person to serve as president of the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians.
A fundraising reception and dinner will be held prior to the lecture to support the NHC’s statewide programming. For details, contact the Nebraska Humanities Council at (402) 474-2131 or nhc@nebraskahumanities.org.
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