Quotes by Eric Foner

Eric Foner

A man working for wages his whole life is not really free. That is why Jefferson said, you have to own land. Southerners said, – and they weren’t being hypocritical – they said slavery is the foundation of freedom because if you own slaves, you are freer yourself.

Foundation

Land

Men

A new future requires a new past.

History

New Future

Past

Colonization was the idea that once slavery ended African-Americans should be encouraged – or required, in some people’s view – required to leave the country. It’s part of an attitude toward the abolition of slavery which says America should not be a slave society, but it can never be a multiracial society. You can never have free black and white people living together.

Attitude

Black And White

Country

For historians, hindsight can be a treacherous ally. Enabling us to trace the hidden patterns of past events, it beguiles us with the mirage of inevitability, the assumption that different outcomes lay beyond the limits of the possible.

Allies

Events

Past

Freedom has been privatized – it is how you dress, what your sexual orientation is, choosing your own life. That’s fine. But that is not what Thomas Jefferson was talking about.

Dresses

Fine

Talking

I admire Lincoln enormously and I think what’s interesting about Lincoln is how he changes, it’s not that he held the same view throughout his life.

Interesting

Thinking

Views

I don’t [even] know the number of books on Abraham Lincoln. Ten thousand, twelve thousand? I have seen various numbers. It seems like every generation is always trying to come to terms with Lincoln.

Always Trying

Book

Numbers

I think here is the irony of American history. We don’t have an established church. When you have an established church nobody takes religion as seriously as we do here. We have a free market in religion. The religious groups are competing with each other.

Church

Religious

Thinking

If you are going to abolish slavery, that opens up all these other questions: what system of labor is going to replace slave labor? What system of race relations is going to replace the race relations of slavery? Who is going to have power in the post-war South? The Emancipation Proclamation doesn’t answer that question, but it throws [it] open.

Race

Slave Labor

War

In a democratic society, as Max Weber said, what is possible is only possible because some people have demanded the impossible. The abolitionists helped to create a public discourse in which men like Lincoln become possible. That doesn’t mean Lincoln is an abolitionist. It means there is a public opinion out there which is being influenced by antislavery sentiment.

Mean

Men

People

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Allies

Always Trying

Army

Attitude

Believe

Black And White

Book

Church

Class

Country

Discovery

Dog

Dresses

Events

Fine

Foundation

Fruit

Government

Hero

History

Ideas

Impact

Interesting

Journey

Land

Mean

Men

New Future

New York

Numbers

Past

People

Race

Religious

Rivers

Should Have

Slave Labor

Slavery

Talking

Thinking

Views

War

Way

Writing

The Future Blueprint

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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The Autobiography

Tool

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Quotes by Eric Foner

Eric Foner

A man working for wages his whole life is not really free. That is why Jefferson said, you have to own land. Southerners said, – and they weren’t being hypocritical – they said slavery is the foundation of freedom because if you own slaves, you are freer yourself.

A new future requires a new past.

For historians, hindsight can be a treacherous ally. Enabling us to trace the hidden patterns of past events, it beguiles us with the mirage of inevitability, the assumption that different outcomes lay beyond the limits of the possible.

Freedom has been privatized – it is how you dress, what your sexual orientation is, choosing your own life. That’s fine. But that is not what Thomas Jefferson was talking about.

I admire Lincoln enormously and I think what’s interesting about Lincoln is how he changes, it’s not that he held the same view throughout his life.

I don’t [even] know the number of books on Abraham Lincoln. Ten thousand, twelve thousand? I have seen various numbers. It seems like every generation is always trying to come to terms with Lincoln.

I think here is the irony of American history. We don’t have an established church. When you have an established church nobody takes religion as seriously as we do here. We have a free market in religion. The religious groups are competing with each other.

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