David Blight
@dblight.bsky.social
Historian, author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which won P-Prize, a teacher and lifer as Tigers, Lions, and MSU fan.
Hello everyone. Please see and attend the next "Trump vs. History" webinar, sponsored by the New Republic. Monday, 4 pm eastern, free on zoom. I will moderate a discussion with the three great historians, Ed Ayers, Molly Worthen, Geraldo Cadava. We fight back!
www.eventbrite.com/e/trump-vers...
www.eventbrite.com/e/trump-vers...
Trump Versus History II
How Trump is trying to change our sense of who we are.
www.eventbrite.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Hello everyone. Please see and attend the next "Trump vs. History" webinar, sponsored by the New Republic. Monday, 4 pm eastern, free on zoom. I will moderate a discussion with the three great historians, Ed Ayers, Molly Worthen, Geraldo Cadava. We fight back!
www.eventbrite.com/e/trump-vers...
www.eventbrite.com/e/trump-vers...
The emperor has no clothes and he is spreading hatred, ignorance, and corruption all around. We have to convert despair into a fighting spirit! Save the American republic!
September 27, 2025 at 7:03 PM
The emperor has no clothes and he is spreading hatred, ignorance, and corruption all around. We have to convert despair into a fighting spirit! Save the American republic!
Federal troops to Portland? Portlanders: don't take the bait. He wants a violent confrontation in order to use those troops. For now hold silent marches with muffled drums, bring flowers, sing songs of freedom, keep it all peaceful and non-violent. Confrontation will come in time.
September 27, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Federal troops to Portland? Portlanders: don't take the bait. He wants a violent confrontation in order to use those troops. For now hold silent marches with muffled drums, bring flowers, sing songs of freedom, keep it all peaceful and non-violent. Confrontation will come in time.
Honor US soldiers at Wounded Knee? Take down 30 images about slavery at Harpers Ferry? Indict your political enemies in worse abuses of law and Constitutional norms than Watergate? Historians and everyone who cares - fight back! We are beyond simply saving democracy; we have to stop a TYRANT!
September 27, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Honor US soldiers at Wounded Knee? Take down 30 images about slavery at Harpers Ferry? Indict your political enemies in worse abuses of law and Constitutional norms than Watergate? Historians and everyone who cares - fight back! We are beyond simply saving democracy; we have to stop a TYRANT!
New op ed in this morning's New Republic about the rhetoric of "civil war" on this anniversary of battle of Antietam, single bloodiest day in American history. David Blight
newrepublic.com/article/2005...
newrepublic.com/article/2005...
So You Want a Civil War? Let’s Pause to Remember
What One Looks Like.
Today marks the 163rd anniversary of Antietam. Those who say they’re ready for civil war should stop and think about what happened there.
newrepublic.com
September 17, 2025 at 12:59 PM
New op ed in this morning's New Republic about the rhetoric of "civil war" on this anniversary of battle of Antietam, single bloodiest day in American history. David Blight
newrepublic.com/article/2005...
newrepublic.com/article/2005...
This piece in Forbes today by Mary Beth Gasman minces no words in calling out the Trump regime and what it is trying to do to American history. Very effective essay.
www.forbes.com/sites/marybe...
www.forbes.com/sites/marybe...
Scholars Defend The Full Story Of U.S. History As Trump Targets Museums
President Trump recently called U.S. museums “the last remaining segment of ”WOKE," singling out the Smithsonian. Historians throughout the U.S. respond.
www.forbes.com
August 27, 2025 at 7:12 PM
This piece in Forbes today by Mary Beth Gasman minces no words in calling out the Trump regime and what it is trying to do to American history. Very effective essay.
www.forbes.com/sites/marybe...
www.forbes.com/sites/marybe...
Good news. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, has graciously accepted my invitation to two debates with his fellow historians about American history on the eve of the US 250th. Details of time and sites are being worked out. One likely in a red state, and one is a blue state.
August 27, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Good news. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, has graciously accepted my invitation to two debates with his fellow historians about American history on the eve of the US 250th. Details of time and sites are being worked out. One likely in a red state, and one is a blue state.
Wrong link in previous post. Here is correct CNN video.
David Blight
video.snapstream.net/Play/8mJmNdV...
David Blight
video.snapstream.net/Play/8mJmNdV...
Connect the World - Wednesday, August 20, 2025 10am ET - Professor David Blight
Powered by SnapStream Cloud Sharing
video.snapstream.net
August 20, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Wrong link in previous post. Here is correct CNN video.
David Blight
video.snapstream.net/Play/8mJmNdV...
David Blight
video.snapstream.net/Play/8mJmNdV...
President Trump: Meet Frederick Douglass and his Narrative. Read!!! And do not say another public word about slavery until you get educated. Please stop insulting Americans with your unbounded ignorance.
August 20, 2025 at 11:59 AM
President Trump: Meet Frederick Douglass and his Narrative. Read!!! And do not say another public word about slavery until you get educated. Please stop insulting Americans with your unbounded ignorance.
Kevin Roberts at Heritage Foundation has not yet accepted my invitation to debate historians. If anyone has direct access at Heritage, please encourage him. The Trump History department should cite their sources and defend their arguments in public.
August 20, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Kevin Roberts at Heritage Foundation has not yet accepted my invitation to debate historians. If anyone has direct access at Heritage, please encourage him. The Trump History department should cite their sources and defend their arguments in public.
Trump's rant about museums: accuses "woke" curators of portraying "how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been..." The first claim is obscene, the second is simply stupid. Ignorance in the mind of a tyrant is a very dangerous thing. Historians - awake!!
August 20, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Trump's rant about museums: accuses "woke" curators of portraying "how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been..." The first claim is obscene, the second is simply stupid. Ignorance in the mind of a tyrant is a very dangerous thing. Historians - awake!!
Reposted by David Blight
Good morning. Here is the cover and all 11 essays of new special issue of the TNR by historians ighting back against Trump administration's assaults on history, museums, archives, libraries. No surrender among historians.
newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...
newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...
newrepublic.com
August 11, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Good morning. Here is the cover and all 11 essays of new special issue of the TNR by historians ighting back against Trump administration's assaults on history, museums, archives, libraries. No surrender among historians.
newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...
newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...
Kevin Roberts and the Heritage Foundation: Come out and debate historians about the current and future practice of American history. See the current New Republic. We respectfully invite you to an open, civil debate.
-David Blight, for American historians and teachers eager to fight back.
-David Blight, for American historians and teachers eager to fight back.
August 11, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Kevin Roberts and the Heritage Foundation: Come out and debate historians about the current and future practice of American history. See the current New Republic. We respectfully invite you to an open, civil debate.
-David Blight, for American historians and teachers eager to fight back.
-David Blight, for American historians and teachers eager to fight back.
Good morning. Here is the cover and all 11 essays of new special issue of the TNR by historians ighting back against Trump administration's assaults on history, museums, archives, libraries. No surrender among historians.
newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...
newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...
newrepublic.com
August 11, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Good morning. Here is the cover and all 11 essays of new special issue of the TNR by historians ighting back against Trump administration's assaults on history, museums, archives, libraries. No surrender among historians.
newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...
newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...
See new essays in New Republic. I have gathered and edited eleven essays by historians on teaching and writing history in the time of Trump. We are fighting back! I'll be on MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell tonight at 10 to talk about the special issue of TNR.
newrepublic.com/series/67/tr...
newrepublic.com/series/67/tr...
Trump Against History
How is Trump changing our sense of who we are? We asked eminent Yale historian David W. Blight to round up some colleagues to consider the question. Here’s what they had to say.
newrepublic.com
August 7, 2025 at 7:28 PM
See new essays in New Republic. I have gathered and edited eleven essays by historians on teaching and writing history in the time of Trump. We are fighting back! I'll be on MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell tonight at 10 to talk about the special issue of TNR.
newrepublic.com/series/67/tr...
newrepublic.com/series/67/tr...
With Akhil Amar, I just helped direct this extraordinary teacher seminar on the history of the Constitution in Philly at National Constitution Center, generously sponsored by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute and OAH. Our comrades, the teachers, were magnificent in knowledge and dedication! Bravo!
☀️ Day 2 of the week-long summer intensive for social studies teachers is in full swing! Incredible conversations—including a lecture by former OAH pres David Blight—& deep dives into history are happening right where it all began. Check out the panel from day 1 here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLVh...
June 28, 2025 at 4:04 PM
With Akhil Amar, I just helped direct this extraordinary teacher seminar on the history of the Constitution in Philly at National Constitution Center, generously sponsored by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute and OAH. Our comrades, the teachers, were magnificent in knowledge and dedication! Bravo!
Trump's lawyers, bound by vows of loyalty to their profoundly ignorant leader, are constitutionally cherry-picking their way to autocracy. They are patient; we citizens should not be!
June 28, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Trump's lawyers, bound by vows of loyalty to their profoundly ignorant leader, are constitutionally cherry-picking their way to autocracy. They are patient; we citizens should not be!
Birthright citizenship: as old in England as Sir Edward Coke's 1608 opinion in "Calvin's Case," and at least as early as the Prudence Crandall case before Connecticut Supreme Court in 1834. The principle: when a government expects "obedience" it must provide "protection."
June 28, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Birthright citizenship: as old in England as Sir Edward Coke's 1608 opinion in "Calvin's Case," and at least as early as the Prudence Crandall case before Connecticut Supreme Court in 1834. The principle: when a government expects "obedience" it must provide "protection."
Trump's sense of triumph yesterday over SCOTUS decision on nation-wide injunctions derives from steady impulse against birthright citizenship. NO Mr. Trump, the Civil War did not end in 1969 and section 1 of the 14th is not intended only for children of slaves. We cannot allow ignorance to win!!!
June 28, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Trump's sense of triumph yesterday over SCOTUS decision on nation-wide injunctions derives from steady impulse against birthright citizenship. NO Mr. Trump, the Civil War did not end in 1969 and section 1 of the 14th is not intended only for children of slaves. We cannot allow ignorance to win!!!
An 800% increase in the ICE finding in the new budget bill out of House and now before the Senate? God help us. Trump wants confrontation; peacefully, without burning cars, people should give it to him.
June 9, 2025 at 5:00 PM
An 800% increase in the ICE finding in the new budget bill out of House and now before the Senate? God help us. Trump wants confrontation; peacefully, without burning cars, people should give it to him.
When barbarians enter your land and territory, do not plan to negotiate. Build your defenses and get ready to drive them out. At universities and all over American education we need to prepare, as William James said, for "the moral equivalent of War."
May 28, 2025 at 2:56 PM
When barbarians enter your land and territory, do not plan to negotiate. Build your defenses and get ready to drive them out. At universities and all over American education we need to prepare, as William James said, for "the moral equivalent of War."
Published this piece on the origins of Memorial Day in Charleston in 1865 fourteen years ago in the NY Times. And see Drew Faust's piece in today's Times. We do indeed need to "stand up!" DB
www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/o...
www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/o...
May 26, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Published this piece on the origins of Memorial Day in Charleston in 1865 fourteen years ago in the NY Times. And see Drew Faust's piece in today's Times. We do indeed need to "stand up!" DB
www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/o...
www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/o...
I have now been on the Meidas Touch Podcasts at least three times of late. Here is on of them. DB
www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...
www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...
Trump DISTURBING ABUSE Comes Back to HAUNT HIM
YouTube video by Legal AF
www.youtube.com
May 22, 2025 at 6:12 PM
I have now been on the Meidas Touch Podcasts at least three times of late. Here is on of them. DB
www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...
www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...
Trump: rude, cruel, pitiful, a really bad White House reality show, with international leaders such as the president of South Africa. Trump should be suspended from school by his junior high dean.
This is a reminder that white Southerners also believed that they were being persecuted during Reconstruction. What an embarrassment.
with the South African president sitting next to him, Trump suggests there is a white genocide happening in his country and says, "I hope you can have an explanation of that"
May 22, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Trump: rude, cruel, pitiful, a really bad White House reality show, with international leaders such as the president of South Africa. Trump should be suspended from school by his junior high dean.
Reposted by David Blight
National Park Service Directed to Implement Trump's Executive Order, 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History' #NationalParks 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...
National Park Service Directed to Implement Trump's Executive Order, 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History'
When President Trump issued his March 27, Executive Order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” it left us with questions as to when and how it would be implemented.
open.substack.com
May 22, 2025 at 10:46 AM
National Park Service Directed to Implement Trump's Executive Order, 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History' #NationalParks 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...