Includes index

Part I : Slavery and antislavery. The rise and fall of American slavery ; The slave ship ; American slavery: the first two centuries ; The line ; Washington and slavery ; Inside the largest slave auction ; Israel Hill ; States Rights and Fugitive Slaves ; Lincoln and Brown ; Lincoln and Douglass -- Part II : The Civil War and Reconstruction. Death and meaning in the Civil War ; The Civil War in "Post-racial" America ; The emancipation of Abraham Lincoln ; On Jefferson Davis ; The making and breaking of the legend of Robert E. Lee ; Longstreet ; The war within the Confederacy ; Why Reconstruction matters ; Donald Trump's unconstitutional dreams ; We should embrace the ambiguity of the Fourteenth Amendment ; Boston's Black activists ; Colfax ; When the Court chooses the President -- Part III : Jim Crow America. American freedom ; The right to discriminate ; Land and freedom in the aftermath of slavery ; A Black dynasty and its fate ; Race, rights, and the law ; Everyday violence in the Jim Crow South ; Tulsa: Forgetting and remembering -- Part IV : The Movement. Reporting the Movement ; The double V ; The real Rosa Parks ; Riding for freedom ; A great American ; King's dream at 60 ; Whatever happened to integration? -- Part V : An imperfect democracy. The Electoral College ; Political wars of the Gilded Age ; The oldest Mass party ; The first black president ; Free speech and its history ; American anarchists ; The war on Civil Liberties ; Chicago, 1968 ; The Court: Grave of liberty ; American Exceptionalism, American Freedom ; Letter to Bernie ; The enemy within -- Part VI : History, memory, historians. The monuments question ; Textbook history ; Twisting history in Texas ; Du Bois ; Rayford Logan ; Vann Woodward ; Hofstadter ; American myth

"From one of the most acclaimed and influential historians of the United States, an insightful guide to our history and why it matters. Eric Foner has done more to shape the public and professional understanding of American history than any other scholar. The preeminent historian of the Civil War era, Foner's keynote has been American freedom and the recurring battles over its meanings and boundaries. His award-winning works show that freedom has been a birthright for some and a struggle for others, that rights gained can also be lost, and that they must always be tended with knowledge and vigilance. The present political moment makes the importance of these themes abundantly clear. This collection of Foner's recent reviews and commentaries demonstrates the range of his interests and expertise, running from slavery and antislavery, through the disunion and remaking of the United States in the nineteenth century, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement, and into our current politics. Each piece shows a master at work, melding historical knowledge and balanced judgment with crystalline prose. Foner takes up towering figures from Washington to Lincoln, Douglass, and Rosa Parks, pivotal events such as the Fugitive Slave Act and the Tulsa Race Massacre, and the fragility of constitutional guarantees to civil liberties, due process, and birthright citizenship, whether in times of war or peace. He also explores recent controversies over how to commemorate, and how to teach, our history."--Book jacket