Podcasts about freedom the hidden history

Tuesday was a dark day for Democrats: Republican Glenn Youngkin's victory in Virginia was not particularly surprising. But how did he manage to present himself both as a Trump supporter and as a more moderate, less crazy kind of country club Republican? Harold Meyerson has our analysis. Plus: how a small group of people challenged an unjust law and changed history: Eric Foner talks about the Underground Railroad and its challenge to the Fugitive Slave Act in the years leading up to the Civil War. His book is “Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad." (first broadcast in January, 2015).

Tuesday was a dark day for Democrats: Republican Glenn Youngkin's victory in Virginia was not particularly surprising. But how did he manage to present himself both as a Trump supporter and as a more moderate, less crazy kind of country club Republican? Harold Meyerson has our analysis. Plus: how a small group of people challenged an unjust law and changed history: Eric Foner talks about the Underground Railroad and its challenge to the Fugitive Slave Act in the years leading up to the Civil War. His book is “Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad." (first broadcast in January, 2015).

Episode SummaryHistorian and optimist Eric Foner grew up through McCarthyism and the Civil Rights Movement and learned that one of the best ways to interpret history is that no matter how things are there is an opportunity to make them better. Syd and Eric talk about how the issues of the past are the issues of today, the dangers of romanticizing our history, and how some things never change. Professor Foner gives an unvarnished primer in American History and you might be surprised at how current it sounds, in this episode of The Sydcast.Syd FinkelsteinSyd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master's degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein's research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life. Eric FonerEric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, is one of this country's most prominent historians. He received his doctoral degree at Columbia under the supervision of Richard Hofstadter. He is one of only two persons to serve as president of the three major professional organizations: the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians, and one of a handful to have won the Bancroft and Pulitzer Prizes in the same year.Professor Foner's publications have concentrated on the intersections of intellectual, political, and social history and the history of American race relations. His books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Eric Foner is a winner of the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates (1991), and the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia University (2006). He was named Scholar of the Year by the New York Council for the Humanities in 1995. In 2006, he received the Kidger Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship from the New England History Teachers Association. In 2014 he was awarded the Gold Medal by the National Institute of Social Sciences. In 2020 he received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement (the award honors literature that confronts racism and explores diversity), and the Roy Rosenzweig Distinguished Service Award from the Organization of American Historians. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Iona College, Queen Mary University of London, the State University of New York, Dartmouth College, Lehigh University, and Princeton University. 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, and 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 in historical documentaries on PBS and the History Channel. He was the on-camera historian for "Freedom: A History of Us," on PBS in 2003 and the chief historical advisor for the award-winning PBS documentary series on Reconstruction and its aftermath broadcast in 2019. He has lectured extensively to both academic and non-academic audiences. Professor Foner retired from teaching in 2018. Insights from this episode:Details on Reconstruction in America, what it was, what went wrong, and how it changed the world.Strategies for staying objective and finding truth when everyone seems to be living in different realities at the same time in history.How to be hopeful about when current events make the future seem bleak.Benefits of learning history, how it shapes our ideals today, and what our present can teach us about our future.Details about Abraham Lincoln and what his principles and methods can teach us today about developing our own standards.Reasons why books written about history are subjective and need to be more objective.Quotes from the show:“Things are always inevitable after they've happened.” – Eric Foner“I grew up understanding how fragile liberty is in our country, or in any other country.” – Eric Foner“It's not just a historical debate. The issues of Reconstruction are the issues of today.” – Eric FonerOn Reconstruction: “The tragedy was not that it was attempted, but that it failed and that left, for a century almost, this question of racial justice in the United States.” – Eric Foner“History is in the eye of the beholder.” – Syd Finkelstein“Being objective does not mean you have an empty mind … it means you have an open mind. You have to be willing to change your mind.” – Eric Foner“History is an ongoing process of reevaluation reinterpretation. There is never just the end of the story.” – Eric FonerOn Professor Foner's lecture on Reconstruction: “It's a statement about what kind of country should America be.” – Syd FinkelsteinOn what a professor does: “The creation and dissemination of knowledge.” – Syd FinkelsteinOn Abraham Lincoln: “We've had many presidents, including the current one, who can not stand criticism, Lincoln welcomed it. He thought he could learn. He thought his entire life he could learn new things.” – Eric Foner“That's what makes you a historian. You have to be able to weigh evidence, judge evidence, balance things out.” – Eric Foner“The historical narrative is an act of the imagination by the historian … what you leave out is as important as what you put in.” – Eric FonerOn the primary system of voting: “It enables the motivated electorate, which is a small percentage, to have an unbelievable influence.” – Syd FinkelsteinBooks by Eric FonerFree Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (1970; reissued with new preface 1995) Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (1976)Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy (1983)Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (1988) (winner, among other awards, of the Bancroft Prize, Parkman Prize, and Los Angeles Times Book Award) The Reader's Companion to American History (with John A. Garraty, 1991)The Story of American Freedom (1998)Who Owns History? Rethinking the Past in a Changing World (2002) Give Me Liberty! An American History (2004) The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (2010) (winner, among other awards, of the Bancroft Prize, Pulitzer Prize for History, and The Lincoln Prize) Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (2015) (winner of the American History Book Prize by the New-York Historical Society)The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)Lectures by Eric FonerDuring the 2014-15 academic year, his Columbia University course on The Civil War and Reconstruction was made available online, free of charge, via ColumbiaX and EdX. They can also be found on YouTube.PART 1: THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WARPART 2: THE CIVIL WARPART 3: RECONSTRUCTIONStay Connected: Syd FinkelsteinWebsite: http://thesydcast.comLinkedIn: Sydney FinkelsteinTwitter: @sydfinkelsteinFacebook: The SydcastInstagram: The SydcastEric FonerWebsite: www.ericfoner.comSubscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Stitcher, iTunes, and Spotify.This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)

Eric Foner is one of the preeminent US historians, particularly for the period of the 1800s involving slavery, the Civil War, & Reconstruction. His latest book is Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, which follows The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln & American Slavery.

This week at the In The Past Lane history podcast, we take up some timely questions: Who was Harriet Tubman and why did the U.S. Treasury Dept. choose her as the first woman to appear on the $20 bill? And why has President Andrew Jackson been demoted to the backside of the bill? Along the way, we’ll speak with the historian who literally wrote the book on Harriet Tubman, historian Catherine Clinton. We’ll also check in with historian Stephanie Yuhl in our History Skinny segment where we discuss history that’s made headlines. So put the top down and join us for another informative and fun journey In The Past Lane. Episode 010 notes and credits Further reading about the history of Harriet Tubman, Andrew Jackson, and the Underground Railroad Catherine Clinton, “The Long Journey from the Age of Jackson to Harriet Tubman on the Twenty” History News Network http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/162628 Catherine Clinton, Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom (2004) Catherine Clinton’s website: http://www.catherineclinton.com/ Feminista Jones, “Keep Harriet Tubman – and all women – off the $20 bill,”The Washington Post, May 14, 2015 Eric Foner, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (Norton, 2015) Music for This Episode: Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (courtesy, JayGMusic.com) Kevin McCleod, “Impact Moderato” (Free Music Archive) Lee Rosevere, “Going Home” (Free Music Archive) Andy Cohen, “Trophy Endorphins” (Free Music Archive) The Bell, “I Am History” (Free Music Archive) Jon Luc Hefferman, “Winter Trek” (Free Music Archive)

This Week: Making sense of the election season with a historian. From Confederate monuments to election politics to utopian communities, Eric Foner discusses today's politics through the legacy of the past, and Laura takes a new look at a hundred-year-old proclamation. Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, is one of this country's most prominent historians, and the foremost expert and the civil war and reconstruction.  He is the author of more than 20 books, including many classics, such as Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War; Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy; and Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. His most recent book is Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad.

In this podcast I talk with Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University about his book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015). Per the book jacket, “More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America’s history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city’s major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city’s free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence,including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York–Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring–full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage–and significant–the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by ‘practical abolition,’ person by person, family by family.” Some of the topics we discuss are: -How vigilance committees provided fugitives with legal representation if they were apprehended. -Why the unwillingness of local juries to convict persons who took part in widely publicized rescues influenced congressional debates over slavery. -The ways resistance to Fugitive Slave Law forced ordinary northerners who had no connection with the abolitionist movement to confront the relationship between individual conscience and legal obligation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast I talk with Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University about his book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015). Per the book jacket, “More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America’s history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city’s major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city’s free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence,including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York–Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring–full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage–and significant–the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by ‘practical abolition,’ person by person, family by family.” Some of the topics we discuss are: -How vigilance committees provided fugitives with legal representation if they were apprehended. -Why the unwillingness of local juries to convict persons who took part in widely publicized rescues influenced congressional debates over slavery. -The ways resistance to Fugitive Slave Law forced ordinary northerners who had no connection with the abolitionist movement to confront the relationship between individual conscience and legal obligation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast I talk with Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University about his book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015). Per the book jacket, “More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America’s history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city’s major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city’s free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence,including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York–Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring–full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage–and significant–the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by ‘practical abolition,’ person by person, family by family.” Some of the topics we discuss are: -How vigilance committees provided fugitives with legal representation if they were apprehended. -Why the unwillingness of local juries to convict persons who took part in widely publicized rescues influenced congressional debates over slavery. -The ways resistance to Fugitive Slave Law forced ordinary northerners who had no connection with the abolitionist movement to confront the relationship between individual conscience and legal obligation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this podcast I talk with Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University about his book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015). Per the book jacket, “More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city's major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North's largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city's free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city's underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence,including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York–Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring–full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage–and significant–the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by ‘practical abolition,' person by person, family by family.” Some of the topics we discuss are: -How vigilance committees provided fugitives with legal representation if they were apprehended. -Why the unwillingness of local juries to convict persons who took part in widely publicized rescues influenced congressional debates over slavery. -The ways resistance to Fugitive Slave Law forced ordinary northerners who had no connection with the abolitionist movement to confront the relationship between individual conscience and legal obligation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Between the 1830s and 1860s, a clandestine communications and transportation network called the “Underground Railroad” helped thousands of slaves escape to freedom. Today, we will investigate and explore this secret network with Eric Foner, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian and author of Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad. Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/059   Helpful Show Links Ask the Historian Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

You've heard of the Underground Railroad, the clandestine, loosely-organized network of people who helped slaves escape from the South before the Civil War. But Eric Foner knows more than you do. And now he's written a book about it: "Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad." Join us for a lively discussion with one of America's foremost historians.

Professor Eric Foner is a leading contemporary historian, whose work focuses on American political history, shifting notions of freedom and liberty, and (perhaps most famously) on the period of post-Civil War Reconstruction. He spoke about growing up in a politically-active family (both his father and uncle were blacklisted American historians), and told me about his encounters and interactions with figures from Paul Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois to Richard Hofstadter, Herbert Gutman, and Eugene Genovese. We also talked about the origins of his historical methodology, his thoughts on contemporary politics, and his latest book, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and consultant on the Academy Award-winning film 12 Years a Slave discusses his latest book, which unearths extraordinary findings from Columbia University’s archives to shed new light on the Underground Railroad. Join Foner in conversation with Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy for an illuminating look at the fraught history of American slavery and the courageous acts of individuals who defied the law in the fight for freedom decades before the Civil War.  *Click here to see photos from the program!