297: How Reconstruction Transformed the Constitution: A Feature Conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian Eric Foner

If you turn on the news, you’re likely to find a heated debate
about big issues, from citizenship to voting rights. For Pulitzer
Prize-winning historian Eric Foner, these issues are at the heart
of what are often called the “Reconstruction Amendments”: the
13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the US Constitution. They were
passed in 1865, 1868 and 1870, respectively. And if you ask Eric,
they’ve been misinterpreted and overlooked for
generations. 



On this episode, Ed sits down with Eric Foner, a professor
emeritus of history at Columbia University, to talk about public
perceptions of Reconstruction, the landmark amendments to the
Constitution and how they have the power to change the country
today. Foner’s new book is The Second Founding: How the Civil War
and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution.

Image: February 18, 1865 Harper's Weekly cartoon depicting
celebration in the House of Representatives after adoption of the
Thirteenth Amendment. Source: Internet Archive.

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