Person

David W. Blight

Bylines

Related Excerpts

George Caleb Bingham, Stump Speaking (1853–54).

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.
Cartoon depiction of a confederate statue, its hat falling off as it is lifted off a pedestal covered in graffiti about love and justice

After the Lost Cause

Why are politics so consumed with the past?

The Prophet Is Human

A towering new biography of the great American orator and public intellectual Frederick Douglass.

The Double Battle

A review of David Blight's new biography of Frederick Douglass.

The Unlikely Paths of Grant and Lee

The two men met at Appomattox. The loser would become a role model, the victor an embarrassment.
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.
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.
White pillars broken in pieces, forming an X.

The Right Side of History

How should historians respond to the urgency of this current political moment?
Photo Portrait of the King Family, 1966.

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.
Horses and carriages in front of funeral home

Report of Action Not Received

An accounting of racist murders in nineteenth-century America.
Split frame image of Norman Mailer, in black and white.

My Norman Mailer Problem—and Ours

Digging down into the roots of white America’s infatuation with Black.
Colorful graphic showing famous Black Americans

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.
A picture of an eerie dark house.

This House Is Still Haunted: An Essay In Seven Gables

A spectre is haunting houses—the spectre of possession.
Cartoon animation of Beecher with his hand up with a man next to him holding a Holy Bible

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.
Side profile of Julia Grant

Julia Dent Grant’s Personal Memoirs as a Plantation Narrative

Her memoirs contribute to the inaccurate post-Civil War memory of the Southern plantation.
Tucker Carlson wearing a t-shirt with a photograph of Abraham Lincoln on it.

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.
A Black family in Savannah, GA.

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.

The Douglass Republic

How today's protests are struggling to reclaim the vision of the great abolitionist leader.
An image of the J. E. B. Stuart statue on Richmond's Monument Avenue being removed, its pedestal covered in graffiti.

All Statues Are Local

The Great Toppling of 2020 and the rebirth of civic imagination.
Emancipation Memorial seen through fence grating

What Frederick Douglass Had to Say About Monuments

In a newly discovered letter, the famed abolitionist wrote that ‘no one monument could be made to tell the whole truth'