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2025-03-07T06:40:50Z

Added links and info with citations and sources.

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{{Short description|American historian (born 1949)}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = David W. Blight
| image = David W. Blight at the 2019 National Book Festival.jpg
| alt =
| caption = David W. Blight at the 2019 National Book Festival
| birth_name = David William Blight
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1949|3|21}}
| birth_place = [[Flint, Michigan|Flint]], [[Michigan]], US
| death_date = 
| death_place =
| residence =
| spouse = {{marriage|Karin B. H. Beckett|1987}}
| awards = {{ubl | {{nowrap|[[Frederick Douglass Prize]] (2001)}} | [[Bancroft Prize]] (2002; 2019) | [[Lincoln Prize]] (2002; 2019) | [[Pulitzer Prize]] (2019)}}
| website = {{official URL}}
| alma_mater = {{ubl | [[Michigan State University]] | [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] [[University of Virginia]]}}
| thesis_title = Keeping Faith in Jubilee
| thesis_year = 1985
| school_tradition =
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors =
| influences = 
| era =
| discipline = {{hlist | [[American studies]] | [[history]]}}
| sub_discipline = [[American history]]
| workplaces = {{ubl | [[North Central College]] | [[Harvard University]] | [[Amherst College]] | [[Yale University]]}}
| doctoral_students = 
| notable_students = 
| main_interests =
| notable_works = {{ubl | ''[[Race and Reunion]]'' (2001) | ''[[Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom|Frederick Douglass]]'' (2018)}}
| notable_ideas =
| influenced = 
| signature =
| signature_alt =
}}
'''David William Blight''' (born 1949) is the [[Sterling Professor]] of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and Director of the [[Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition]] at [[Yale University]]. Previously, Blight was a professor of History at [[Amherst College]], where he taught for 13 years. He has won several awards, including the [[Bancroft Prize]] and [[Frederick Douglass Prize]] for ''[[Race and Reunion|Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory]]'', and the [[Pulitzer Prize]] and [[Lincoln Prize]] for ''[[Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom]]''. In 2021, he was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/american-philosophical-society-welcomes-new-members-2021|title=The American Philosophical Society Welcomes New Members for 2021}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Blight was born on March 21, 1949, in [[Flint, Michigan|Flint]], [[Michigan]], where he grew up in a [[mobile home]] park. He attended [[Flint Central High School]], from which he graduated in 1967.<ref name="mynorth">{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Jordee |title=Pulitzer-Winning Biographer David Blight at National Writers Series |url=https://mynorth.com/2020/06/pulitzer-winning-biographer-david-blight-at-national-writers-series/ |access-date=11 September 2021 |work=Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine |publisher=MyNorth Media |date=30 June 2020}}</ref>

He then attended [[Michigan State University]] where he played for the [[Michigan State Spartans baseball|Michigan State Spartans baseball team]] and graduated in 1971 with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in history. Blight taught at [[Flint Northern High School]] for seven years. He received his [[Master of Arts]] degree in [[American history]] from Michigan State in 1976 and a [[Doctor of Philosophy]] degree in the same field from the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] in 1985 with a dissertation titled ''Keeping Faith in Jubilee: Frederick Douglass and the Meaning of the Civil War''.<ref>David W. Blight. "[https://www.proquest.com/docview/303382685/previewPDF/ Keeping Faith in Jubilee: Frederick Douglass and the Meaning of the Civil War]"</ref>

==Career==
Following stints at [[North Central College]] (1982–1987) and [[Harvard University]] (1987–1989), Blight taught at [[Amherst College]] from 1990 to 2003. In 2001, he published ''[[Race and Reunion|Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory]]''. It "presented a new way of understanding the nation's collective response to the war, arguing that, in the interest of reunification, the country ignored the racist underpinnings of the war, leaving a legacy of racial conflict."<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/blight_d.html "David W. Blight"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080127150618/http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/blight_d.html |date=2008-01-27 }}, History Dept., Yale University, 2007, accessed 27 April 2012</ref> The book earned Blight both the [[Bancroft Prize]] and [[Frederick Douglass Prize]].

After being hired by Yale in 2003 and teaching as a full professor, in 2006 Blight was selected to direct the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. His primary focus is on the [[American Civil War]] and how American society grappled with the war in its aftermath. His 2007 book ''A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation'' provides context for newly discovered first-person accounts by two African-American slaves who escaped during the Civil War and emancipated themselves.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Grimes |first1=William |title=Freedom Just Ahead: The War Within the Civil War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/books/05grimes.html |access-date=11 September 2021 |work=New York Times |date=5 December 2007}}</ref>

He also lectures for [[One Day University]]. In Spring 2008, Blight recorded a 27-lecture course, ''The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845–1877'' for [[Open Yale Courses]], which is available online.

Blight wrote ''[[Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom]]'', released in 2018, as the first major biography of Douglass in nearly three decades. One reviewer called it "''the'' definitive biography of Frederick Douglass" and another heralded the book as "the new Frederick Douglass standard-bearer for years to come."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Glaude |first1=Eddie |title=Complex look at Frederick Douglass with a lesson for Trump era |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2018/10/11/complex-look-frederick-douglass-with-lesson-for-trump-era/Law9tP37CJCraFPxMO5iOO/story.html |access-date=6 March 2019 |work=Boston Globe |date=12 October 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author-last1=Claybourn |author-first1=Joshua |author-link1=Joshua Claybourn |title=A review of 'Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom' by David W. Blight |url=http://www.compulsivereader.com/2018/09/16/a-review-of-frederick-douglass-prophet-of-freedom-by-david-w-blight/ |work=Compulsive Reader}}</ref> It earned the 2019 [[Pulitzer Prize]] in history and the 2019 Gilder Lehrman [[Lincoln Prize]].<ref>{{cite web |title=David Blight Awarded the 2019 Lincoln Prize for "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom" |url=https://www.gilderlehrman.org/content/david-blight-awarded-2019-lincoln-prize-frederick-douglass-prophet-freedom |website=the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |access-date=6 March 2019}}</ref>

Contributing to the anthology ''Our American Story'' (2019), Blight addressed the possibility of a shared American narrative. He cited Frederick Douglass's 1867 speech titled "Composite Nation" calling for a "multi-ethnic, multi-racial 'nation' ... incorporated into this new vision of a 'composite' nationality, [[Separation of church and state in the United States|separating church and state]], giving allegiance to a single new constitution, federalizing the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]], and spreading liberty more broadly than any civilization had ever attempted". Blight concluded that although the search for a new unified American story would be difficult, "we must try".<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Claybourn |editor-first1=Joshua |editor-link1=Joshua Claybourn |title=Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative |date=2019 |publisher=Potomac Books |location=Lincoln, NE |isbn=978-1640121706 |pages=3–18 }}</ref>

In July 2020, Blight was one of the 153 signers of the "Harper's Letter", published in ''Harper's Magazine'' and titled "[[A Letter on Justice and Open Debate]]", which expressed concern that "The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-07-07 |title=A Letter on Justice and Open Debate {{!}} Harper's Magazine |url=https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/ |access-date=2022-08-23 |website=Harper’s Magazine |language=en}}</ref>

In 2020, David Blight was commissioned by the then president of Yale College [[Peter Salovey]] to form a research group on "the history of Yale and slavery." In 2024, Blight published ''Yale and Slavery. A History,'' in which, among other things, he found that "A multitude of Yale University's founders, rectors and early presidents, faculty, donors, and graduates played roles in sustaining slavery, its ideological underpinnings, and its power".<ref>{{Cite news |title='Let’s dig into the archives and tell the truth': interrogating Yale's connections to slavery |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/04/david-blight-yale-slavery |last=Pengelly |first=Martin |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=4 March 2025 |access-date=7 March 2025}}</ref>

==Awards==
* 2001 [[Frederick Douglass Prize]] for ''Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory''.<ref name="HUP"/>
* 2002 [[Bancroft Prize]]; co-winner, [[James A. Rawley Prize (OAH)|James A. Rawley Prize]] from the [[Organization of American Historians]]; 2002 [[Ellis W. Hawley Prize]], Organization of American Historians; [[Merle Curti Award]]; and [[Lincoln Prize]] for ''Race and Reunion''<ref name="HUP">[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674008199 ''Race and Reunion'' and prizes], Harvard University Press, accessed 27 April 2012</ref>
* 2008 Connecticut Book Prize for ''A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation''
* 2012 [[Anisfield-Wolf Book Award|Anisfield-Wolf Prize]] for ''American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era''<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/glc/index.htm "David W. Blight Receives 2012 Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060620130058/http://www.yale.edu/glc/index.htm |date=2006-06-20 }}, The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, Yale University, accessed 27 April 2012</ref>
* 2018 Vincent J. Dooley Distinguished Teaching Fellow, honor bestowed by the [[Georgia Historical Society]].
* 2018 The Lincoln Forum's [[Richard Nelson Current]] Award of Achievement<ref>[https://www.thelincolnforum.org/richard-nelson-current-award-of-achievement The Lincoln Forum]</ref>
* 2019 Gilder Lehrman [[Lincoln Prize]] for ''Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom''
* 2019 New England Book Awards for ''Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom''<ref>{{cite web|url= https://newenglandbooks.org/page/book-awards |title= New England Book Awards |work= New England Independent Booksellers Association |access-date= December 22, 2023 |archive-date= December 22, 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231222141109/https://newenglandbooks.org/page/book-awards |url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2019 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]] for ''Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom''
* 2019 [[PEN Oakland awards|PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award]] for ''Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom''
* 2020 [[American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medals#History|American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in History]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://glc.yale.edu/news/david-blight-receives-highest-honor-american-academy-arts-and-letters|title=David Blight receives highest honor from American Academy of Arts and Letters|website=glc.yale.edu|date=March 25, 2020|access-date=November 25, 2020}}</ref>
* 2022 [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement's]] Golden Plate Award<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url= https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/}}</ref>

==Works==
===Books as author===
* {{cite book| author = David W. Blight| title = Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee| year = 1989| publisher = LSU Press| isbn = 978-0-8071-1724-8| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/frederickdouglas00blig}}
* {{cite book| author = David W. Blight| title = Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory| year = 2001| publisher = Harvard University Press| isbn = 978-0-674-00819-9 | title-link = Race and Reunion}}
* {{cite book| author = David W. Blight| title = Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War| year = 2002| publisher = University of Massachusetts Press| isbn = 978-1-55849-361-2 }}
* {{cite book| author = David W. Blight| title = A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation| year = 2007| publisher = Houghton Mifflin Harcourt| isbn = 978-0-15-101232-9| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/slavenomoretwome00blig}}
* {{cite book| author = David W. Blight| title = American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era| year = 2011| publisher = Belknap Press| isbn = 978-0-67-404855-3 }}
* {{cite book| author = David W. Blight| title = Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom| year = 2018| publisher = Simon & Schuster| isbn = 978-1-4165-9031-6 | title-link = Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom}}
* {{cite book| author = David W. Blight| title = Yale and Slavery: A History| year = 2024| publisher = Yale University Press| isbn = 9780300273847}}

===Books as contributor===
* {{cite book| title=Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave| url=https://archive.org/details/narrativeoflife100doug| url-access=registration| author=Frederick Douglass| others=Introduction David W. Blight| publisher=Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press| year= 1993 }}
* "They Knew What Time It Was: African-Americans and the Coming of the Civil War". {{cite book| editor = Gabor Boritt| editor-link = Gabor Boritt| title = Why the Civil War Came| year = 1996| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 0-19-507941-8 }}
* "The Theft of Lincoln in Scholarship, Politics, and Public Memory". {{cite book| editor = Eric Foner| editor-link = Eric Foner| title = Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World| year = 2008| publisher = W. W. Norton & Company| isbn = 978-0-393-06756-9 }}
* Blight, David W., ed. ''When This Cruel War Is Over: The Civil War Letters of Charles Harvey Brewster''. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 2009.
* "Cup of Wrath and Fire". [[Edward L. Widmer|Ted Widmer]], ed. (2016). ''The New York Times DISUNION: A History of the Civil War''. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 10-13.
* "Hating and Loving the 'Real' Abe Lincolns: Lincoln and the American South" (2011). [[Richard Carwardine]] and Jay Sexton, eds., ''The Global Lincoln''. New York: Oxford University Press.
* "Introduction" (co-authored with [[Gregory P. Downs]] and Jim Downs). David W. Blight and Jim Downs, eds. (2017). {{cite book| title = Beyond Freedom: Disrupting the History of Emancipation| date = 2017| publisher = University of Georgia Press| isbn = 9780820351483 }}
* "Composite Nation?", {{cite book| editor = Joshua Claybourn| editor-link = Joshua Claybourn| title = Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative| year = 2019| publisher = Potomac Books| isbn = 978-1640121706 }}
* "Foreword: From Every Point of the Compass out of the Countless Graves". {{cite book| editor1 = Brian Matthew Jordan| editor2 = Jonathan W. White| title = Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves|year=2023| publisher = The University of Georgia Press| isbn = 9780820364551 }}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Official website}}
*{{C-SPAN|83840}}
*{{cite web |url= http://www.courttv.com/chat/transcripts/2007/1114slavenarratives-blight.html |title= Historian David Blight on two newly published slave narratives |author= Chat Transcript |work= [[Court TV]] |date= 14 November 2007 |access-date= 5 December 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071123122217/http://www.courttv.com/chat/transcripts/2007/1114slavenarratives-blight.html |archive-date= 23 November 2007 |url-status= dead }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080127150618/http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/blight_d.html Yale History Faculty: David W. Blight]
*[http://news.yale.edu/2004/06/09/historian-david-blight-direct-gilder-lehrman-center-yale "Historian David Blight to Direct the Gilder-Lehrman Center at Yale"], Yale, 6 April 2009
*[http://glc.yale.edu/ The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition], Yale University
*[http://oyc.yale.edu/history/civil-war-and-reconstruction/ Online Videos: David W. Blight, ''The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845–1877''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005073338/http://oyc.yale.edu/history/civil-war-and-reconstruction/ |date=2012-10-05 }}, [[Open Yale Courses]], 27 lectures, recorded Spring 2008, Yale University. Available free of charge via iTunes U.

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{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 2001–2025}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blight, David W.}}
[[Category:1949 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century American historians]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Flint, Michigan]]
[[Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni]]
[[Category:Amherst College faculty]]
[[Category:Flint Central High School alumni]]
[[Category:Historians of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Lincoln Prize winners]]
[[Category:Yale University faculty]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Historians of slavery]]
[[Category:Yale Sterling Professors]]
[[Category:Bancroft Prize winners]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Historians from Michigan]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]

David W. Blight - Revision history

imported>NONIS STEFANO: Added links and info with citations and sources.