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David W. Blight
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An Extraordinary Historical Collaboration Sees Nat Turner's Rebellion in a Prophetic Light
A new book argues that we misunderstand the forces that drove the notorious slave rebel.
by
David W. Blight
via
Los Angeles Times
on
August 9, 2024
A Yankee Apology for Reconstruction
The creators of Yale’s Civil War Memorial were more concerned with honoring “both sides” than with the true meaning of the war.
by
David W. Blight
via
The Atlantic
on
February 16, 2024
Trump's 'Lost Cause,' a Kind of Gangster Cult, Won't Go Away
Lost cause narratives sometimes have been powerful enough to build or destroy political regimes. They can advance a politics of grievance.
by
David W. Blight
via
Los Angeles Times
on
January 14, 2024
The Annotated Frederick Douglass
In 1866, the famous abolitionist laid out his vision for radically reshaping America in the pages of "The Atlantic."
by
Frederick Douglass
,
David W. Blight
via
The Atlantic
on
November 13, 2023
The Two Constitutions
James Oakes’s deeply researched book argues that two very different readings of the 1787 charter put the United States on a course of all but inevitable conflict.
by
David W. Blight
via
New York Review of Books
on
May 18, 2023
The Fog of History Wars
Old feuds remind us that history is continually revised, driven by new evidence and present-day imperatives.
by
David W. Blight
via
The New Yorker
on
June 9, 2021
James Weldon Johnson’s Ode to the “Deep River” of American History
What an old poem says about the search for justice following the Capitol riot.
by
David W. Blight
via
The New Republic
on
March 2, 2021
An American Pogrom
Uncovering the truth about the 1898 massacre of black voters in Wilmington, North Carolina.
by
David W. Blight
via
New York Review of Books
on
October 30, 2020
Europe in 1989, America in 2020, and the Death of the Lost Cause
A whole vision of history seems to be leaving the stage.
by
David W. Blight
via
The New Yorker
on
July 1, 2020
Yes, the Freedmen’s Memorial Uses Racist Imagery. But Don’t Tear It Down.
Keep in mind what it meant to the people who created it.
by
David W. Blight
via
Washington Post
on
June 25, 2020
One Week to Save Democracy
Lessons from Frederick Douglass on the tortured relationship between protest and change.
by
David W. Blight
via
The Atlantic
on
June 5, 2020
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Yale and Slavery
: A History
David W. Blight
2024
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How the American Jeremiad Can Restore the American Soul
One of the country’s greatest rhetorical traditions still has the power to remind us of our founding principles.
by
Sam B. Girgus
via
Bulwark+
on
March 29, 2024
After the Lost Cause
Why are politics so consumed with the past?
by
Benjamin Wallace-Wells
via
The New Yorker
on
June 24, 2021
The Prophet Is Human
A towering new biography of the great American orator and public intellectual Frederick Douglass.
by
Mary F. Corey
via
Los Angeles Review of Books
on
April 11, 2019
The Double Battle
A review of David Blight's new biography of Frederick Douglass.
by
Eric Foner
via
The Nation
on
October 24, 2018
The Unlikely Paths of Grant and Lee
The two men met at Appomattox. The loser would become a role model, the victor an embarrassment.
by
Jamelle Bouie
via
Slate
on
April 9, 2015
partner
"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech is widely known as one of the greatest abolitionist speeches ever.
via
BackStory
on
July 7, 2014
partner
Fierce Urgency of Now
Exploring the origins and impacts of the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," on that event's 50th anniversary.
via
BackStory
on
August 23, 2013
Battle Hymns
Charles Ives and the Civil War.
by
Allen C. Guelzo
via
The American Scholar
on
September 12, 2024
How Bondage Built the Church
Swarns’s book about a sale of enslaved people by Jesuit priests to save Georgetown University reminds us that the legacy of slavery is the legacy of resistance.
by
Tiya Miles
via
New York Review of Books
on
May 2, 2024
The Right Side of History
How should historians respond to the urgency of this current political moment?
by
Emma Green
via
The New Yorker
on
March 7, 2023
Reflections on Juneteenth: Black Civil Rights and the Influence of Fatherhood
From MLK to Obama, advancers for civil rights were driven by their fatherhood and dreams of better life for their own children.
by
Wayne Washington
via
The Palm Beach Post
on
June 15, 2022
Report of Action Not Received
An accounting of racist murders in nineteenth-century America.
by
Stephen Berry
via
Lapham’s Quarterly
on
May 11, 2022
My Norman Mailer Problem—and Ours
Digging down into the roots of white America’s infatuation with Black.
by
Darryl Pinckney
via
The Nation
on
March 7, 2022
What’s In a Black Name? 400 Years of Context.
From Phillis Wheatley to Lil Uzi Vert, Black names and their evolution tell the story of America.
by
Soraya Nadia McDonald
via
Andscape
on
March 1, 2022
This House Is Still Haunted: An Essay In Seven Gables
A spectre is haunting houses—the spectre of possession.
by
Adam Fales
via
Dilettante Army
on
February 15, 2022
When Forgiveness Enables Tyranny: The Unbearable Lightness of Henry Ward Beecher
The most influential preacher in the country, Beecher aggressively agitated for the Union to extend complete forgiveness to Confederates.
by
Kari J. Winter
via
Commonplace
on
February 1, 2022
Julia Dent Grant’s Personal Memoirs as a Plantation Narrative
Her memoirs contribute to the inaccurate post-Civil War memory of the Southern plantation.
by
Nick Sacco
via
Muster
on
July 20, 2021
The Right May Be Giving Up the “Lost Cause,” but What’s Next Could Be Worse
The GOP’s new embrace of Lincoln, emancipation, and Juneteenth is no sign of progress.
by
Rebecca Onion
,
Matthew Karp
via
Slate
on
June 25, 2021
The “Families’ Cause” in the Post-Civil War Era
While focusing on refuting the Lost Cause narrative, many historians forget to memorialize Black Americans in the post Civil War period.
by
Holly A. Pinheiro Jr.
via
Black Perspectives
on
March 24, 2021
The Douglass Republic
How today's protests are struggling to reclaim the vision of the great abolitionist leader.
by
Jabari Asim
via
The New Republic
on
August 14, 2020
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