In this collection of polemical pieces, Foner expounds on the relevance of Abraham Lincoln's legacy in the age of Obama and on the need for another era of Reconstruction.

In addition to articles in which Foner calls out politicians and the powerful for their abuse and misuse of American history, Foner assesses some of his fellow leading historians of the late 20th century, including Richard Hofstadter, Howard Zinn, and Eric Hobsbawm.

Foner ends with an open letter to Bernie Sanders analyzing the great tradition of radicalism that he has spent his career studying and which, he argues, Americans of progressive disposition should seek to celebrate and retrieve.