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Speeches
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
From Days of Mourning to Days of Jubilee? Frederick Douglass and the Meaning of the Civil War
An OAH Distinguished Lecture by David Blight, Class of 1954 Professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University.
Civil War author and historian David Blight talks about the career and influence of one of his predecessors in the field, Bruce Catton.
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.
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."
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.
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."
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.
Years of Anguish III: Slavery and Emancipation
Fredericksburg Baptist Church
Author and historian David Blight connected the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement during the recent Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern History event.
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.
Historian and Yale Professor, David Blight spoke at the Cottage Conversation at President Lincoln's Cottage on October 27, 2011. We caught up with him to talk about his new book, "American Oracle
David Blight of Yale University delivers the keynote address at the North Carolina Civil War 150th Symposium.
David Blight, professor of American history at Yale University, speaks about the nature of Civil War memory in the border states by referencing moving passages in the work of Kentucky author and literary critic Robert Penn Warren.
U.S. Civil War scholars from across the nation are speaking at Vanderbilt University this spring on a variety of themes, including the war’s impact on Nashville, during a series of public lectures.
David Blight, professor of American history and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University, delivered the Harry C. Howard Jr. Lecture March 24, 2011, at Vanderbilt University.
David Blight is a professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, at Yale University. David Blight discusses 9/11, memorialization, and the American identity.
The 60th annual National Book Awards ceremony was held at Cipriani in New York City with Andy Borowitz as the host. The National Book Foundation presented a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Gore Vidal and a Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Dave Eggers. Then authors spoke after their awards were announced.
Roundtable discussion with David Blight, R. Brian Ferguson, John Horgan, and Dori Laub.
“Lincoln in His Time and Ours: A Public Symposium” was held by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the American Studies Program and History Department of Columbia University to observe the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth in 1809 and to mark the publication of Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World, edited by Eric Foner (W.W. Norton & Company).
David W. Blight, award winning author, gives his lecture "A Slave No More: Two Recently Discovered Narratives and the Story of Emancipation" at the Dole Institute.
Lessons from the Past for Leadership Today at the CIC’s 2015 Presidents Institute