Imatge de l'autor

David W. Blight

Autor/a de Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

19+ obres 3,549 Membres 53 Ressenyes 3 preferits

Sobre l'autor

David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale. He is the author of annotated editions of two of Frederick Douglass's autobiographies, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick mostra'n més Douglass and My Bondage and My Freedom. He is also the author of A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation and the prize-winning Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, among other works. Visit David W. Blight at www.davidwblight.com. mostra'n menys
Crèdit de la imatge: David W. Blight

Obres de David W. Blight

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (2018) — Autor — 1,102 exemplars
A People and a Nation: A History of the United States (1982) — Autor — 210 exemplars
Yale and Slavery: A History (2024) 6 exemplars

Obres associades

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) — Editor, algunes edicions9,190 exemplars
The Souls of Black Folk [Bedford Cultural Editions] (1997) — Editor — 142 exemplars
Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World (2008) — Col·laborador — 115 exemplars
The Scopes Trial: A Brief History with Documents (2002) — Pròleg — 93 exemplars
Who Speaks for the Negro? (1965) — Introducció, algunes edicions68 exemplars
Muller v. Oregon: A Brief History with Documents (1996) — Pròleg — 61 exemplars
The Columbian Orator (1797) — Introducció, algunes edicions59 exemplars
Voter Suppression in U.S. Elections (2020) — Col·laborador — 25 exemplars

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Ressenyes

A magnificent biography. An incomparable story that stretches from the troubled earth to the open sky. If only he lived longer. Much longer.
 
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ben_r47 | Hi ha 21 ressenyes més | Feb 22, 2024 |
Facing a seven-hour drive, I picked up this audiobook so that I wouldn’t have to listen to a business book for that long in one day. The author David Blight had won a Pulitzer Prize and is renowned for his annals of African-American history. I knew his writing to be eloquent and clear, and his observations of human nature, compassionate and acute. I had great hopes for this drive, and thankfully, with Blight’s erudite help, it passed very quickly. I was drawn into and moved by these self-written life stories of two self-emancipated slaves.

Self-written emancipation narratives are extremely rare. Though oral stories circulated in American culture after the Civil War, few were written down. Even fewer were written down by the formerly enslaved person themselves. These two narratives fit squarely in that category, grammatical errors and all. Only in recent decades, the public became aware of them. Blight artfully retells each of these stories for modern readers and then shares both stories in their original, unedited form.

Listening to this book is like peeling a vidalia onion, each step slightly tear-inducing yet commingled with a savory sweetness. Blight opens with an introduction and then tells their stories using scholarly knowledge to bring modern readers up to speed. Then, he shares broader historical information not in the original accounts, like what we know happened to them afterwards and how their lives fit into wider American history. Finally, the essential core is shared in the life stories in the self-emancipated heroes themselves, told in their own words. The entire product is moving and engrossing.

John Washington was enslaved in Virginia yet became literate as a city slave. After escaping, he ended up helping the Union army while fighting for his wife and children’s freedom. Wallace Turnage, enslaved in the fields of Alabama, tried to escape an impressive five times as a teenager before finally succeeding. Turnage’s tale became more exciting each time I heart it, and the final telling – in his own words – stirred my heart within. He overcame being hunted, whippings, hunger, daunting landscapes, and the waters of Mobile Bay in order to gain freedom. What better voice to tell of America’s deep meaning!

Since after the Civil War all the way to today, many white people have tried to sweep slavery’s unseemliness into a forgotten past. That’s unfortunate. Not only is that unjust for people still struggling with similar racist obstacles today, but it also lacks the depths of inspiration for all of us. People like John Washington and Wallace Turnage are inspiring human beings for what they overcame to treasure life’s freedoms. They just happened to be black slaves. They are proud emblems of America. During the upcoming Black History Month, they inspire me, a white man with plenty of privilege, to learn more about the people around me in America and to benefit from their stories, their courage, and their heart.
… (més)
 
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scottjpearson | Hi ha 7 ressenyes més | Jan 27, 2024 |
This was the book I’d been reading on and off for a couple of years—a bit of a doorstop, this one, and a challenge to read anywhere except on a comfy chair and a bright light. I picked the book up after reading, in succession, all three versions of Douglass’s Life and Times. (I know that sounded strange. But it becomes apparent how Douglass expands on sections he previously glossed over (like his escape) or portrays key incidents differently. It's fascinating, for instance, to read how Douglass remembers his mother, or chooses to remember his mother, from version to version.)

Blight pores through Douglass's writings and letters (and interestingly, what’s missing from the letters) to create a complex historical and psychological portrait of “the greatest American who ever lived.” It sometimes feels too stuffed with historical detail; Douglass was constantly on speaking tours, and so we are repeatedly told of his itinerary, what he ate, who he met, and so on. What worked best for me were Blight’s close readings of Douglass’s speeches, and how Douglas metaphorically positions himself in relation to the Biblical prophets, or the rupture and tumult of the previous few decades of American history, or his own personal biography.
… (més)
 
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thewilyf | Hi ha 21 ressenyes més | Dec 25, 2023 |
David Blight is an eminent, Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian interested in the role of race in American history. Many think that American attitudes about race were “solved” by the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves. Those battles were won by the Union and not the Confederacy, right? This book seeks to chronicle how in the 50 years after emancipation (until around World War I), southern states and the promotion of “Lost Cause” ideology won a place in American society, north and south. Americans were more concerned with reconciliation among the whites than peace among all peoples. This attitude laid the necessity of further social action in the Civil Rights movements, up to today.

When I was ten years old, I moved from St. Louis, Missouri, to upstate South Carolina. I noticed a cultural difference in attitudes about the Civil War. My community in St. Louis was quite proudly multicultural while my community in South Carolina was predominantly white. Southernisms abounded, like the word “y’all” and sayings like “The devil’s beating his wife” when it rained. Likewise, conversations about the Civil War were less about the end of slavery and more about family who fought.

I have since lived in northern, western, and southern states and currently live in urban Tennessee. I’ve seen a lot of attitudes about the Civil War and racism: Northern pride over “uneducated southerners,” southern regions with a pro-Union history, southerners celebrating frank ignorance, and a Nashville pride of birthing the Civil Rights movement. Often forgotten are the victims and survivors of slavery and white supremacy. Blight’s book indicts all white history with abundant, carefully reasoned evidence. Our ancestors almost universally favored white reunion over racial reconciliation. Civil rights movements, past and present, try to overturn the remnants of such structural racism. White supremacy lingered far past 1863 or 1865. Indeed, some is still with us, north and south.

I appreciate this book for correcting my common tendency to overlook racial injustice. I’ve tried to fight it in protests, professional advocacy, and personal relationships. Yet anywhere in America, it’s easy to fall prey to forgetting historical inertia. And I remain a complicit part of that forgetful inertia. Blight’s work clearly corrects that tendency in a dispassionate, erudite, and reflective manner. By enlightening me and healing my own unknowing biases, I hope it will help me have better relationships and construct a better society. The American experiment is not done yet, and Race and Reunion can help put up a few more supporting flanks in its house.
… (més)
 
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scottjpearson | Hi ha 13 ressenyes més | Dec 16, 2023 |

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Obres
19
També de
9
Membres
3,549
Popularitat
#7,152
Valoració
4.1
Ressenyes
53
ISBN
88
Llengües
4
Preferit
3

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