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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
Location/County: Charleston, Kanawha
October 22, 2015
Historian Eric Foner to Deliver McCreight Lecture in the Humanities, 7:30PM October 22 at the University of Charleston
The West Virginia Humanities Council announces that Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Eric Foner will present the annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities on Thursday, October 22, at the University of Charleston. The 7:30 p.m. program “Civil War to Civil Rights: The Politics of History” takes place in the Geary Auditorium of Riggleman Hall. It is free and open to the public. Following the program, the speaker will sign copies of his books that will be available for purchase.
Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and one of the country’s most prominent historians. He is one of only two people to serve as president of the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and the Society of American Historians. He is also one of a few to win the Bancroft Prize and Pulitzer Prize in the same year. In a recent book review, University of Pennsylvania professor Steven Hahn wrote of Foner, “he has had an enormous influence on how other historians, as well as a good cut of the general reading public, have come to think about American history.”
Foner’s publications have concentrated on the intersection of intellectual, political, and social history, and the history of American race relations. His best-known books include Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, winner of the Bancroft Prize; and The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, which received the Pulitzer Prize for History, the Bancroft Prize, and the Lincoln Prize. His latest book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad was published early in 2015. Foner is the third Pulitzer Prize winner among the last five McCreight Lecturers.
He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy. He has taught at Oxford University, Cambridge University, Moscow State University, and Queen Mary, University of London. Foner serves on the editorial boards of Past and Present and The Nation. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and London Review of Books among many other publications. He has appeared on numerous television and radio shows including Charlie Rose, Book Notes, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, Bill Moyers Journal, Fresh Air, and All Things Considered, and also in historical documentaries on PBS and the History Channel. Foner is a highly sought speaker for both academic and public audiences.
The McCreight Lecture is a program of the West Virginia Humanities Council. For more information contact the Humanities Council at 304-346-8500 or visit www.wvhumanities.org.