Public Speaking •
David Blight spoke at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center on Friday, January 24, 2020. Blight discussed his book “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom” (Simon & Schuster, October 2018) and larger issues of race in America as part of UVA's 2020 Community MLK Celebration.
Read MoreHistorians Peter Onuf, David Blight and Annette Gordon-Reed discussed defining equality and the Declaration of Independence.
View video: https://www.c-span.org/video/?446262-2/declaration-independence-defining-equality
Read MoreDavid Blight with students from the Stratton Mountain School in Vermont and their teacher Reid Smith, after Blight's lecture, “The Civil War, Race and Reunion,” at the First Congregational Church of Manchester, VT on Wednesday, May 3, 2017.
Read More
Monday, September 21, 2015, W.L. Harkness Hall, Yale University
A Panel with Edward Ball, Yale; Jelani Cobb, University of Connecticut; Glenda Gilmore, Yale; Jonathan Holloway, Yale; Vesla Weaver, Yale; Moderated by David Blight, Yale.
To view video: https://youtu.be/r1JgFbRFoFk
Read MoreDavid Blight sat down with Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, to discuss Foner's new book, Gateway to Freedom, about the Underground Railroad in New York.
Read MoreDavid Blight sat down with Greg Grandin, Professor of History at New York University, to discuss Grandin's recent book The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World.
Read MoreJames Oakes and John Witt talked about their books on the process of Emancipation during the Civil War. James Oakes argued that contrary to conventional narratives, the destruction of slavery was a Republican goal from the beginning of the war. John Witt spoke about the world’s first pamphlet style “laws of war” code written by Lincoln advisor and legal scholar Francis Lieber in 1862 and 1863. Witt argued that the “Lieber Code” was written to help justify emancipation as a military necessity, and that the code has been a source for international laws of war ever since. The discussion was moderated by David Blight.
