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David Blight

@dblight.bsky.social
1.5K followers 149 following 74 posts

Historian, author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, which won P-Prize, a teacher and lifer as Tigers, Lions, and MSU fan.

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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Hello. Jim Grossman and I just published this essay today in the New Republic on the one year anniversary of Trump's infamous executive order, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History." Still insane after all these years. newrepublic.com/article/2082...
newrepublic.com
Unhappy Anniversary: One Year Since Trump’s Brutish Assault on History
It’s a year to the day since Trump’s executive order on American history. It’s just as idiotic and offensive now as it was then.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
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."
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
As I have said, I do not intend any reconciliation with Roberts and Heritage. Not possible. But to communicate why many of us believe they are wrong to their faces. Otherwise we just talk with each other as we are doing here.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
The goal with the podcast was exactly the opposite. I think it shows that. Please listen to it.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
For those who hate that I did an interview with Kevin Roberts, I hope you listen to it. Frankly, he hung himself on his own petard. Most of his answers were vacuous or worse. Why not expose this rather than merely hate it. I agree about Roberts's views. Tried to reveal them. I think we did.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Trump and his enablers are calling the Iran war an "excursion." From what to what? In much of our past most American wars were not fully preemptive on the part of US as this one is. The Mexican War in 1846 yes. Vietnam certainly to an extent. Trump is a war president of, by and for ignorance.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I will soon be writing about this podcast and its highlights for the New Republic. DB
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Here is a proper link to my interview with Kevin Roberts of Heritage Foundation about American history. We had it out with civility and great disagreement. DB www.davidwblight.com/public-histo...
davidwblight.com
David Blight and Kevin Roberts of Heritage Foundation Discuss the Practice and Politics of History | Podcast — David W. Blight
David Blight in conversation with Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation. As president of the Organization of American Historians last year, I promised I would reach out to the Heritage...
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Please listen to this podcast I did with Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation. We debate history in America. We agreed do be civil even as we knew we would disagree on almost everything. Both happened. Roberts revealed himself and the perils of Trumpism. DB Blight Roberts
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
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...
eventbrite.com
Trump Versus History II
How Trump is trying to change our sense of who we are.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
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!
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
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!
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
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
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
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...
forbes.com
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Wrong link in previous post. Here is correct CNN video. David Blight video.snapstream.net/Play/8mJmNdV...
video.snapstream.net
Connect the World - Wednesday, August 20, 2025 10am ET - Professor David Blight
Powered by SnapStream Cloud Sharing
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
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!!
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
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
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
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
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
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
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
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!
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
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!
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
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."
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
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!!!
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
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."
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
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...
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
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...
youtube.com
Trump DISTURBING ABUSE Comes Back to HAUNT HIM
YouTube video by Legal AF
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
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.
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Kevin M. Levin @civilwarmemory.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
National Park Service Directed to Implement Trump's Executive Order, 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History' #NationalParks 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...
open.substack.com
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.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Here is the video of my commencement address at Michigan State on May 3. Move about 20 minutes into the video. I called it "History Comes for You Too." video.wkar.org/video/colleg...
video.wkar.org
MSU Commencements | College of Social Science | Spring 2025 | Season 2025 | Episode 14
College of Social Science | Spring 2025
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
I gave the commencement address at Michigan State last Saturday for the social science grads and families. 12,000 people in the Breslin Center. I'll put up video as soon as I get it. My subject was Trumpist attacks on higher ed and on history. www.linkedin.com/posts/zenell...
linkedin.com
☕️☕️ This was the first commencement speech I ever heard. I have been in… | Zenell Brown | 10 comments
☕️☕️ This was the first commencement speech I ever heard. I have been in attndance for many, but this is the first time I have really been present. “ I will have nothing that others cannot have i...
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
"In a dark time, the eye begins to see." - Theodore Roethke
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Disagree. Chris Murphy has certainly found his voice. Bernie and AOC and many more. Keep your eyes open.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Did anyone in the press corps offer her any education? The Trump cabinet as a group may be earning a special place in a large corner of hell.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
On Saturday, May 3, at 9 am, in the Breslin Center, I am delivering the commencement address to all the Arts and Science graduates at my alma mater, Michigan State University. Trepidation! "History Never Takes a Day Off" is title. It is not a light springtime message. I'll report how it goes.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
HISTORIANS: Organize and Fight Back! see appeal from OAH. mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#se...
mail.google.com
Gmail
Gmail is email that’s intuitive, efficient, and useful. 15 GB of storage, less spam, and mobile access.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Trump may yet unify teachers, academics, and all involved in education, museums, historic sites. This is as William James put it, our "moral equivalent of war? Mobilization requires solidarity beyond righteousness, beyond individualism, beyond our singular zones of interest.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Harvard stepped up and told Trump's people no! Now the fight really begins. Ignorant bullies can be tripped up and then thrown down. But remember, despots do not stop when embarrassed; they attack more.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Plenty of complaints about Harvard over the years, but a proud Harvard alum today. wapo.st/4cH9vy3
wapo.st
Harvard rejects Trump administration’s demands with federal funding at risk
The university’s response comes after the government announced a federal review of nearly $9 billion in funding to Harvard and its affiliates.
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Laurence H. Tribe @tribelaw.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
“Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” Harvard attorneys wrote to federal officials. “Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms.” If you’ve never given to Harvard, GIVE NOW! search.app/M76p3GzTmMuc...
search.app
Harvard Will Fight Trump’s Demands | News | The Harvard Crimson
Harvard will not comply with the Trump administration’s demands to dismantle its diversity programming and limit student protests in exchange for its federal funding, University President Alan M. Garb...
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Lame debate about whether we are in a constitutional crisis. Trump is defying a Supreme Court order. No more evidence is necessary. The scene at White House today with the president of El Salvador was obscene. It appears the law cannot or will not contain Trump and his minions.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Teachers and historians and museum curators of all kinds: plan a lecture/panel at your local public library, a school, a church, a union hall, or any civic space and DEFEND HISTORY AND LIBRARIES FROM TRUMPIST DENIGRATION. LET'S FIGHT BACK!
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Yes our plenary in Chicago where almost 1800 historians gathered was all about the current assaults on historians and museums. CNN would have done well to cover it as would lots of other media.
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David Blight @dblight.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
This has a short summary of my presidential address, "Historians' Voices in Times of Peril." I will put up the full video of speech as soon as I have it. DB www.processhistory.org/saturday-and....
processhistory.org
Saturday and Sunday Highlights at OAH 2025
On the final full day of the conference, Chicago’s clouds blocked the sun, but that did not dampen the mood at the Sheraton Grand as attendees gathered for the final full day of conference activities....
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