![]() ![]() In October of 2018, Simon and Schuster published his new biography of Frederick Douglass, entitled, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which garnered nine book awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Francis Parkman Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars, New York Public Library. During the 2006-07 academic year he was a fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. In 2013-14 he was the William Pitt Professor of American History at Cambridge University, UK, and in 2010-11, Blight was the Rogers Distinguished Fellow in 19th-Century American History at the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. He previously taught at Amherst College for thirteen years. In his capacity as director of the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, Blight organizes conferences, working groups, lectures, the administering of the annual Frederick Douglass Book Prize, and many public outreach programs regarding the history of slavery and its abolition. As of June, 2004, he is Director, succeeding David Brion Davis, of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. At Yale University he is Sterling Professor of History, joining that faculty in January, 2003. Please join us for what I know will be an enlightening and engaging class on the challenges and triumphs of writing biography.ĭavid W. Blight is a teacher, scholar and public historian. ![]() And in his current work on the great writer James Weldon Johnson, David will provide the world with yet another example of how one can transform reality through the use of language. In his work on the power of historical memory, David has examined how the stories we tell ourselves about our history shape our sense of responsibility in the present. Douglass often described words as his “weapon” in his lifelong battle to convince Americans to live up to their ideals. But how do we undertake such work? How do we reconstruct and tell the story of a human life? Few scholars have devoted more thought to these questions than David and in this class, we will explore his journey as a biographer in order to learn things about thinking, writing, and living well.ĭavid is a perfect fit for this series because he has devoted his life to studying individuals who have used the written word as their primary tool to bring about social change. ![]() We share a fascination with life and legacy of Douglass and a belief that the study of such historical figures is vital to the health of our political culture. Blight will join me for this second session in this series, Five Things I’ve Learned About the Challenges and Triumphs of Writing Biography. David and I met through the study of Frederick Douglass. I am thrilled to be hosting a series of four personal conversations with leading writers about their experience of the power of the written word. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America. Hi, I’m Nick Buccola, the author of The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. View the archive of our 90-minute class and discover the Five Things We’ve Learned about the ways that t biography can help us better learn about thinking, writing, and living well. Blight maintains a website, including information about public lectures, books, articles and interviews at. At the beginning of his career, he spent seven years as a high school history teacher in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. His lecture course on the Civil War and Reconstruction Era at Yale is on the internet at. He writes frequently for the popular press, including the Atlantic, the New York Times, and many other journals. ![]() He has worked on Douglass much of his professional life, and been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory and annotated editions of Douglass’s first two autobiographies. He previously taught at North Central College in Illinois, Harvard University, and Amherst College. Blight is Sterling Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. ![]()
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