On June 21, 2017, Gilder Lehrman Center Director David Blight and GLC summer intern Ry Walker (YC 2020) addressed a group of elementary, middle, and high school teachers at a New Haven monument to the 29th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. The teachers were participants in a seminar taught by Prof. Blight called “The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass.” The seminar was organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Ms. Walker is a rising sophomore at Yale University. Through the Afro-American Cultural Center’s History Keepers Program, she was interning with the GLC for the month of June.
Read MoreSpeeches •
The Biddle Memorial Lecture: “DOUGLASS! DOUGLASS! Writing the Life of Frederick Douglass: Why, and Why Now?”
Lecture Film
David Blight gave the Biddle Memorial Lecture at Harvard Law School on November 9, 2016. His lecture, “DOUGLASS! DOUGLASS! Writing the Life of Frederick Douglass: Why, and Why Now?” was moderated by Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School.
To view video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN3jo7TPs8o
Read MoreAlistair Cooke Memorial Lecture
Alistair Cooke was a British journalist and broadcaster, who presented Letter from America on BBC Radio for nearly 60 years. To commemorate his life and work, the BBC has invited historian Prof David Blight of Yale University to present the 2015 Alistair Cooke Memorial Lecture.
Read MoreThe Council of Independent Colleges(CIC) 2015 President’s Institute Plenary Address. (San Diego, CA.)
Lessons from the Past for Leadership Today at the CIC’s 2015 Presidents Institute
Read MoreCareer of Civil War Historian Bruce Catton (Gettysburg College)
Civil War author and historian David Blight talks about the career and influence of one of his predecessors in the field, Bruce Catton. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Catton researched and wrote several books about the Civil War, including the 1954 Pulitzer Prize-winning A Stillness at Appomattox. The Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College hosted this event.
Read MoreDavid Blight: The Civil War in American Memory (Minnesota Public Radio)
Photo Credit: Civil War remains Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
Historian David Blight speaks at the Minnesota Historical Society's History Forum about the ways the Civil War has influenced American history and its society and people in the 150 years since.
Read MoreFrom Days of Mourning to Days of Jubilee? (Smithsonian American Art Museum)
From Days of Mourning to Days of Jubilee? Frederick Douglass and the Meaning of the Civil War
Read MoreThe Civil War in American Memory (OAH, Minnesota Historical Society)
An OAH Distinguished Lecture by David Blight, Class of 1954 Professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University.
Read MoreCareer of Civil War Historian Bruce Catton (Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College)
Civil War author and historian David Blight talks about the career and influence of one of his predecessors in the field, Bruce Catton.
Read MoreYale Civil War hero Uriah Parmelee and the cause of abolitionism (Yale and the Civil War Sesquicentennial Series)
Famed Yale Civil War historian David Blight looks at Uriah Parmelee, a Yale student who joined the Union Army to fight for the abolition of slavery.
Read MoreDavid W. Blight at the NYS Writers Institute in 2012
The featured speaker for the 2012 Researching New York Conference, David W. Blight will present a lecture, "America Divided, Then and Now: The Civil War in our National and Local Imagination."
Read MoreDavid W. Blight at the NYS Writers Institute in 2012
The featured speaker for the 2012 Researching New York Conference, David W. Blight will present a lecture, "America Divided, Then and Now: The Civil War in our National and Local Imagination." One of the foremost authorities on the U.S. Civil War, Blight is Professor of American History and Director, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition at Yale University. He has authored numerous works including, most recently, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era (2011) and Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (2002).
2012 Induction Ceremony of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
David Blight presents at the 2012 Induction Ceremony of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, held on Saturday, October 6, 2012 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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"AMERICAN ORACLE: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era" - David Blight (The City Club of Cleveland - Cleveland, Ohio)
David W. Blight, Professor, Department of History at Yale University, speaks about his book titled "AMERICAN ORACLE: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era."
Read More2012 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (Ohio Theater, Cleveland)
The 77th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards were presented to “books that have made an important contribution to society’s understanding of racism and diversity of human cultures.” Jury Chair Henry Louis Gates, Jr. presented a lifetime achievement award to Arnold Rampersad, humanities professor at Stanford University and author of biographies of Ralph Ellison and Langston Hughes.
Read More2012 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (Ohio Theater, Cleveland )
The 77th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards were presented to “books that have made an important contribution to society’s understanding of racism and diversity of human cultures.” Jury Chair Henry Louis Gates, Jr. presented a lifetime achievement award to Arnold Rampersad, humanities professor at Stanford University and author of biographies of Ralph Ellison and Langston Hughes. Awards are also given for non-fiction, David Blight, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era and David Livingstone Smith, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others and for fiction, Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues: A Novel. The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards were held at the Ohio Theatre in Cleveland.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?308485-1/2012-anisfieldwolf-book-awards
Is the Civil War the Revolution We Like to Forget? (Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, Case Western Reserve University)
David Blight | Campus, Case Western Reserve University
The Meaning of Emancipation in Civil War Memory, Then and Now (Fredericksburg Baptist Church - Fredericksburg, VA, )
Years of Anguish III: Slavery and Emancipation
Fredericksburg Baptist Church
"I Have A Dream" Speech Marked Civil War Centennial (Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern History event at Ole Miss - University of Mississippi)
Author and historian David Blight connected the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement during the recent Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern History event.
Read MoreThe Civil War, American oracle? (Historic Tredegar - Richmond, Virginia)
Historian and author, Dr. David Blight, discussed America's fascination with the Civil War along with his new book, "American Oracle," on Nov. 4, 2011, at Historic Tredegar. Blight gave the keynote address during the first Founder's Day Dinner, which celebrated the Center's fifth anniversary.
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