David W. Blight

David W. Blight is Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University. Blight was the Class of 1959 Professor of History at Amherst College, where he taught for 13 years.

Life

Blight grew up in Flint, Michigan. The name Blight is of Cornish origin. After getting his undergraduate degree, Blight taught in a public high school for seven years. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1985.

He is the director of the Gilder-Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University. His primary focus is on the American Civil War and its aftermath.

Along with historians Eric Foner and Steven Hahn, Blight focuses his study on post-Civil War history. He also lectures for One Day University.

Awards

• 2002 Bancroft Prize
• 2002 James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians
• 2002 Merle Curti Award
• 2002 Lincoln Prize
• 2001 Frederick Douglass Prize.

Works

• Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. Harvard University Press. 2001. ISBN 9780674008199. http://books.google.com/books?id=3R-yvmpYaqAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=David+W.+Blight+race+and+reunion&lr=&ei=76vvSqDyF4y4NtiahdUL#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2007. ISBN 9780151012329. http://books.google.com/books?id=NE0CpV2wMAsC&pg=PP1&dq=David+W.+Blight+slave+no+more&lr=&ei=oavvSub3Op7yNJLGhNkL#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• David W. Blight (1991). Frederick Douglass' Civil War: keeping faith in jubilee. LSU Press. ISBN 9780807117248. http://books.google.com/books?id=ABWQVKj00-8C&pg=PP1&dq=David+W.+Blight+douglass&ei=0KnvSvOiC5KwNrGaoIYM#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
• David W. Blight (2002). Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory & the American Civil War. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 9781558493612. http://books.google.com/books?id=B0g9dC_QxMQC&pg=PA89&dq=David+W.+Blight+douglass&ei=0KnvSvOiC5KwNrGaoIYM#v=onepage&q=David%20W.%20Blight%20douglass&f=false. 

• Frederick Douglass (1993). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Introduction David W. Blight. Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press. 

References

His lectures on the American Civil War are available free of charge via ITUNES U. The 27 lectures are entitled 'The Civil War and Reconstruction Era 1845-1877'.

External links

• Chat Transcript (14 November 2007). "Historian David Blight on two newly published slave narratives". Court TV. http://www.courttv.com/chat/transcripts/2007/1114slavenarratives-blight.html. 
• Yale History Faculty: David W. Blight
• Historian David Blight to Direct the Gilder-Lehrman Center at Yale
• The Gilder-Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition
• Online Videos: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877 - At Open Yale Courses