Oral history interview with Eric Foner, 2015

Biographical Note

Eric Foner is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. He received his BA from Columbia College in 1963, and he went on to study United States history at Columbia, receiving his PhD in 1969 under Richard Hofstadter. He taught at Columbia for a few years after receiving his PhD and then went on to work as a professor in the department of history at City College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York from 1973 to 1982. In 1982, Foner returned to teach in the Columbia history department, and he received the DeWitt Clinton professorship in 1988. Foner's work has focused on the political and social history of the nineteenth century, particularly the Civil War and Reconstruction era and topics associated with slavery and race in the politics of this time period. Some of his most well-known books include Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (1970), Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (1988), andThe Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery(2010), which won the Pulitzer Prize for History. Foner is also the author of a popular U.S. history textbook, Give Me Liberty: An American History. In early 2015, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad was released. Foner was a major force behind the hiring of women and African American faculty members in the 1980s, and he drove the shift in the department to account for themes of gender, race, and class in scholarship and curricula. He was involved in the early development of IRWAG, serving on the search committee that resulted in the hiring of Martha Howell in 1989, and he has remained peripherally engaged as a supporter of the Institute since its creation. In addition, Foner was also fundamentally engaged with the creation of the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia, and he is widely known as a supporter of progressive causes on campus

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Eric Foner describes his experience at Columbia University, first as a student and later as a faculty member. He begins with a description of Columbia at the time of his undergraduate and graduate years, from 1959 to 1969. Foner discusses the state of the history department during this period. After his return to Columbia in 1982, Foner describes the arrival of Professor Elizabeth Blackmar, the first female history professor at Columbia. Foner recalls early conversations with Blackmar regarding the integration of women's studies into the history curriculum and names Blackmar as the crucial connection between history and IRWGS. Foner locates these goals within a larger shift at Columbia, citing the inclusion of female undergraduates in 1983. Foner continues to see institutes such as IRWGS, the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, and the Institute for Research in African-American Studies as crucial agents in diversifying Columbia's intellectual community. Foner continues with a recollection of his personal involvement with IRWGS, including his position on a search committee for IRWGS' first director. As the only man on the committee, Foner recalls this unique opportunity as illuminating of the systemic inequalities faced by women at Columbia. Foner concludes this interview with a discussion of the continued relevance of faculty organizing for social change. Foner describes the crises of the 1990s-including labor disputes, the Iraq war, and the controversiality of Middle Eastern and ethnic studies-as inspiration for the formation of Q Fac. Originally created by Victoria De Grazia and Rosalind Morris, Q Fac was composed of 150 liberal faculty members devoted to addressing current events both on and off campus. Foner concludes this discussion by urging tenured professors to exercise their freedom of speech

Subjects

• Blackmar, Elizabeth, 1950-
• College teachers--Interviews.
• College teachers--United States--Political activity.
• Columbia University. Department of History.
• Columbia University. Institute for Research on Women and Gender.
• Feminism and higher education--United States.
• Feminist theory.
• Foner, Eric, 1943---Interviews.
• Freeman, Mary T., interviewer.
• Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Sex discrimination in higher education.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2015