{"title":"David W. Blight","description":"\u003cp\u003eDavid W. Blight’s works delve deeply into the complexities of American history, exploring themes of race, memory, and reconciliation with a scholarly yet accessible voice. His detailed biographies and historical analyses illuminate pivotal figures and moments, shedding new light on the legacies of slavery and the Civil War era.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders can expect carefully researched narratives that engage with cultural memory and education, offering profound insights into how history shapes contemporary understanding. Blight’s books are essential for those interested in comprehensive historical perspectives and thoughtful reflections on America’s past.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"frederick-douglass","title":"Frederick Douglass","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrederick Douglass\u003c\/i\u003e by David W. Blight is a monumental biography of the esteemed former slave who became a leading voice for abolition and civil rights in America. This richly detailed and immersive work takes readers from Douglass's harrowing escape from slavery in Baltimore in 1838 to his rise as one of the most extraordinary figures in American history. The book delves deeply into Douglass's journey as he educated himself, becoming a powerful orator and prolific writer who used his immense talents to champion the cause of freedom and equality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Bancroft, Parkman, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e (biography), Lincoln, Plutarch, and Christopher Awards\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNamed one of the Best Books of 2018 by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Chicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs a young man, Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been secretly taught to read by his slave owner’s wife, which ignited a spark of intellectual curiosity and a hunger for freedom. Douglass's very existence and achievements rebutted the dehumanising arguments of slave owners, as he bore powerful testimony to the brutality and injustice of the institution of slavery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInitially mentored by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass travelled widely, eloquently condemning slavery in public speeches that drew upon his own personal experiences. By the time of the Civil War, Douglass had become the most famous and widely travelled African American orator of his time. Douglass's powerful and eloquent voice, both written and spoken, became an unrelenting critique of American society and a testament to the ideals of radical patriotism. Though he sometimes clashed politically with younger African American leaders after the war, Douglass remained steadfast in his commitments to the Republican Party and the cause of black civil and political rights.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this \"cinematic and deeply engaging\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e) biography, David Blight draws on newly discovered information from a private collection, as well as previously unexamined issues of Douglass's newspapers, to create a vivid and comprehensive portrait of Douglass’s life and legacy. Blight's biography also explores the personal side of Douglass's story, including his two marriages and complex extended family relationships. Blight's work has been praised as \"absorbing and even moving...a brilliant book that speaks to our own time as well as Douglass’s\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e), and hailed by \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e as \"the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass...a powerful portrait of one of the most important American voices of the nineteenth century.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45686012608748,"sku":"9781416590323","price":38.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781416590323.jpg?v=1725459761"},{"product_id":"yale-and-slavery-by-david-w-blight-9780300281842","title":"Yale and Slavery","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA comprehensive look at how slavery and resistance to it have shaped Yale University\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"The most mature examination ever made of the role of slavery in a university's past.\" — John Samuel Harpham, \u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAward-winning historian David W. Blight, with the Yale and Slavery Research Project, answers the call to investigate Yale University's historical involvement with slavery, the slave trade, and abolition. This narrative history demonstrates the importance of slavery in the making of this renowned American institution of higher learning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on wide-ranging archival materials, \u003cem\u003eYale and Slavery\u003c\/em\u003e extends from the century before the college's founding in 1701 to the dedication of its Civil War memorial in 1915, while engaging with the legacies and remembrance of this complex story. The book brings into focus the enslaved and free Black people who have been part of Yale's history from the beginning— but too often ignored in official accounts. These individuals and their descendants worked at Yale; petitioned and fought for freedom and dignity; built churches, schools, and antislavery organizations; and were among the first Black students to transform the university from the inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlways alive to the surprises and ironies of the past, \u003cem\u003eYale and Slavery\u003c\/em\u003e presents a richer and more complete history of Yale, the third-oldest college in the country, showing how pillars of American higher education, even in New England, emerged over time intertwined with the national and international history of racial slavery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47433367191788,"sku":"9780300281842","price":35.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780300281842.jpg?v=1774765061"},{"product_id":"race-and-reunion-by-david-w-blight-9780674008199","title":"Race and Reunion","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Bancroft Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   \n\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \n\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Merle Curti Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \n\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Frederick Douglass Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNo historical event has left as deep an imprint on America's collective memory as the Civil War. In the war's aftermath, Americans had to embrace and cast off a traumatic past. David Blight explores the perilous path of remembering and forgetting, and reveals its tragic costs to race relations and America's national reunion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1865, confronted with a ravaged landscape and a torn America, the North and South began a slow and painful process of reconciliation. The ensuing decades witnessed the triumph of a culture of reunion, which downplayed sectional division and emphasized the heroics of a battle between noble men of the Blue and the Gray. Nearly lost in national culture were the moral crusades over slavery that ignited the war, the presence and participation of African Americans throughout the war, and the promise of emancipation that emerged from the war. \u003cem\u003eRace and Reunion\u003c\/em\u003e is a history of how the unity of white America was purchased through the increasing segregation of black and white memory of the Civil War.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlight delves deeply into the shifting meanings of death and sacrifice, Reconstruction, the romanticized South of literature, soldiers' reminiscences of battle, the idea of the Lost Cause, and the ritual of Memorial Day. He resurrects the variety of African-American voices and memories of the war and the efforts to preserve the emancipationist legacy in the midst of a culture built on its denial.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlight's sweeping narrative of triumph and tragedy, romance and realism, is a compelling tale of the politics of memory, of how a nation healed from civil war without justice. By the early twentieth century, the problems of race and reunion were locked in mutual dependence, a painful legacy that continues to haunt us today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47558990397676,"sku":"9780674008199","price":92.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780674008199-race-and-reunion.jpg?v=1776925616"},{"product_id":"yale-and-slavery-by-david-w-blight-9780300273847","title":"Yale and Slavery","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA comprehensive look at how slavery and resistance to it have shaped Yale University.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"The most mature examination ever made of the role of slavery in a university's past.\"—John Samuel Harpham, \u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAward-winning historian David W. Blight, with the Yale and Slavery Research Project, answers the call to investigate Yale University's historical involvement with slavery, the slave trade, and abolition. This narrative history demonstrates the importance of slavery in the making of this renowned American institution of higher learning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on wide-ranging archival materials, \u003cem\u003eYale and Slavery\u003c\/em\u003e extends from the century before the college's founding in 1701 to the dedication of its Civil War memorial in 1915, while engaging with the legacies and remembrance of this complex story. The book brings into focus the enslaved and free Black people who have been part of Yale's history from the beginning—but too often ignored in official accounts. These individuals and their descendants worked at Yale; petitioned and fought for freedom and dignity; built churches, schools, and antislavery organizations; and were among the first Black students to transform the university from the inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlways alive to the surprises and ironies of the past, \u003cem\u003eYale and Slavery\u003c\/em\u003e presents a richer and more complete history of Yale, the third-oldest college in the country, showing how pillars of American higher education, even in New England, emerged over time intertwined with the national and international history of racial slavery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47601452286188,"sku":"9780300273847","price":83.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/fa5e5d2c55617b0106f79da3d273b7e3.jpg?v=1778017434"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/david-w-blight.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}