The DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, Eric Foner is a noted scholar of the Civil War and Reconstruction period of U.S. history. He is the author of several books including The Story of American Freedom, Who Owns History?, and Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, which received the Bancroft, Parkman, and Los Angeles Times Book prizes. The Fiery Trial tells the story of Abraham Lincoln and how he deftly navigated a divided nation to abolish slavery and usher in a new era of American politics.