About the Author

David W. Blight is also the author of Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War and Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, winner of the Frederick Douglass Prize, the Lincoln Prize, and the Bancroft Prize, among other awards. He is a professor of history at Yale University.

Reviews

"This fine intellectual biography of Douglass is a major contribution to our understanding not only of that complex man but also of how an orator and writer of great imagination can contribute to the structuring of the national memory." -- William S. McFeely, Journal of American History"Blight has given us what is, so far, the most detailed treatment of Douglass in his prime, revealing much carefully acquired knowledge of archival sources and secondary literature." -- Wilson J. Moses, Reviews in American History"David Blight offers subtle, convincing, and often moving descriptions of Douglass' contributions to American political and religious thought on the Civil War, the nature of the American Republic before and after the conflict, and the significance of the Afro-American presence in the United States." -- Alfred A. Moss, Jr.