David Blight

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...

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.

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!

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

Connect the World - Wednesday, August 20, 2025 10am ET - Professor David Blight Powered by SnapStream Cloud Sharing

Wrong link in previous post. Here is correct CNN video.
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.

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!!

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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!

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!!!

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."

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...

Trump DISTURBING ABUSE Comes Back to HAUNT HIM YouTube video by Legal AF

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...

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.

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.

National Park Service Directed to Implement Trump's Executive Order, 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History' #NationalParks 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

MSU Commencements | College of Social Science | Spring 2025 | Season 2025 | Episode 14 College of Social Science | Spring 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...

☕️☕️ 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...

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...

"In a dark time, the eye begins to see."
- Theodore Roethke

Disagree. Chris Murphy has certainly found his voice. Bernie and AOC and many more. Keep your eyes open.

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.