Pulitzer Prize-Winning American Historian to Zoom with Students

Portrait of Eric Foner. Courtesy of Columbia University.

Gator Staff
April 28, 2020

Eric Foner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, will Zoom with David Cutler’s American history students Monday at 11:15 a.m., during the open block.

Foner, widely hailed as one of the nation’s most accomplished historians—and the leading authority on Reconstruction—is author of almost two dozen books, most recently, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution.

Foner will discuss with students his life and career, as well as his greatest influences. He will also talk about the importance of history, as well as how COVID-19 has and will continue to impact research.

Cutler read Foner’s landmark work, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, during the summer of his high school junior year, while also taking a history course at Penn State University. Cutler was hooked, and he has since read just about everything that the prize-winning historian has produced.

“It’s impossible to overstate just how much I respect Prof. Foner,” Cutler said. “Each time I read and reread one of his works, I learn something new. He is a national treasure, my greatest academic hero, and lest I forgot to mention, also a truly gifted educator.”

Cutler also assigns Foner’s Give Me Liberty: An American History, as the main text of his class.

Several years ago, Cutler interviewed Foner for an article in The Atlantic, “You Have to Know History to Actually Teach It.”

“I’ve interviewed many other famous people, but I was never as nervous having the chance to interview my hero,” Cutler said. “Of course, Prof. Foner put me quickly at ease.”

Zoom with Prof Foner
Time: May 4, 2020 11:15 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 617 555 2533
Password: 7684

Editors’ note: Students, faculty, staff, are welcome attend the Zoom session. If you are an alumni or a parent, please email Cutler ([email protected]) that you would also like to attend, as he will monitor the waiting room and only admit entry to names he recognizes. The session will also be recorded as a podcast for on-demand listening.