Dr. Foner,
Many thanks for your recent book, “The Second Founding.” Shedding light on the jurisprudence (or the lack thereof) surrounding, not only the Constitution, but the Reconstruction Amendments.
I’m a retired Presbyterian minister living in Pasadena, enjoying the sunshine, having survived, “just barely,” the Donald Trump years, and fully realizing now that Trump was an “illustration” of ideas long regnant in the reactionary elements of American culture. I knew this, but never had I read a book specifically on the three Amendments, and the promise they still hold, and how the Court has so consistently, frustratingly, been willing to walk them back, or at least to walk them into a few places
never intended.
You have made a lasting contribution to America’s quest for social health.
I purchased the book from a local book dealer (not Amazon, ha!) in Pasadena, Vroman’s - you may have heard of them, after hearing Fareed Zakaria so favorably review it.
As of late, I have found two other books, by historians, now a part of my little pantheon: “How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America," by Heather Cox Richardson, and “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,” by Kristin Kobes DuMez.
Anyway, I remain both fearful and hopeful for the welfare of our nation - there are terrible forces guided by “Plantation Capitalists” … and still forces of hope, as well, pursuing the “better angels.”
All the best.
My deepest thanks.
Tom
The Rev. Dr. Tom Eggebeen
Pasadena, CA
