Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight (English) Hardcover Bo

Description: Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight "An acclaimed historians definitive biography of the most important African-American figure of the 19th century, Frederick Douglass, who was to his century what Martin Luther King, Jr. was to the 20th century"-- FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description **Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History** "Extraordinary...a great American biography" (The New Yorker) of the most important African-American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era.As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass spoke widely, using his own story to condemn slavery. By the Civil War, Douglass had become the most famed and widely travelled orator in the nation. In his unique and eloquent voice, written and spoken, Douglass was a fierce critic of the United States as well as a radical patriot. After the war he sometimes argued politically with younger African Americans, but he never forsook either the Republican party or the cause of black civil and political rights. In this "cinematic and deeply engaging" (The New York Times Book Review) biography, David Blight has drawn on new information held in a private collection that few other historian have consulted, as well as recently discovered issues of Douglasss newspapers. "Absorbing and even moving...a brilliant book that speaks to our own time as well as Douglasss" (The Wall Street Journal), Blights biography tells the fascinating story of Douglasss two marriages and his complex extended family. "David Blight has written the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass...a powerful portrait of one of the most important American voices of the nineteenth century" (The Boston Globe). In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Frederick Douglass won the Bancroft, Parkman, Los Angeles Times (biography), Lincoln, Plutarch, and Christopher awards and was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Time. Author Biography David W. Blight is the Sterling Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era; and Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory; and annotated editions of Douglasss first two autobiographies. He has worked on Douglass much of his professional life, and been awarded the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others. Review "With the lucid prose and in-depth research that have been a hallmark of his long and distinguished career, Blight has written the definitive biography of one of the great reformers in American history. Blight beautifully treats Douglass public career and complex private life, creating a detailed tapestry that allows readers to see the inner Douglass." -- Erik Chaput * The Providence Journal * "This magnum opus surpasses previous singular biographies . . . an essential text for students and educators seeking to understand Douglasss complex and expansive narrative." * Library Journal (starred review) * "Blights opus manages to be both a celebration of a remarkable life and a sober reminder of the many ways in which our terrible times are shaped by those Douglass lived through. In so many ways, the central questions then are the central questions now." -- Terence Samuel * NPR.org * "A monumental book, a definitive biography, rich with the biblical cadences that filled Douglass life and imagination." -- John S. Gardner * The Guardian * "Meticulously detailed. . . . . The Douglass who emerges from this massive work is not always heroic, or even likable, but Blight illuminates his personal struggles and achievements to emphasize what an extraordinary person he was." * Publishers Weekly (starred review) * "No American of his generation did more than Douglass, both in word and deed, to propel his people, and the nation, toward a reckoning with its original sin. Now he is brought vividly and delightfully to life once more in the flesh and bones of this masterful biography by one of our greatest historians. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom is a monumental achievement, a must-read for anyone charting the history of a democracy when it is most severely under attack." -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University "David Blight brilliantly illustrates both the perils and possibilities of our national history through a rich and humane portrait of a man and his times. This is a remarkable book about a remarkable American and his enduring impact." -- Drew Gilpin Faust, former president, Harvard University, and author of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War "David W. Blight brilliantly captures this legendary figure and his times in the magnificent Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, one of the best biographies of recent years. Blights portrait of Douglass is engrossing, moving, nuanced, frightening-and certainly thought-provoking." * BookPage * "A masterful, comprehensive biography such as Mr. Blights is particularly welcome in times such as these, when politicians such as the president are gleefully stoking the same racial divisions that Mr. Douglass spent his life trying to extinguish." -- Greg Barnhisel * The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette * "Superbly written. . . . Blight viscerally captures the vitality, strength, and determination of his subject. . . . [He] delivers what is sure to be considered the standard-bearer for years to come. A masterful, comprehensive biography." * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * "Brilliant and compassionate. . . . Blights Douglass is an unapologetic prophet and radical, and the eloquent voice of this sacred extremist has never been more relevant. A must-read." * Booklist (starred review) * "This much-anticipated biography of the foremost black leader and one of the greatest Americans of the nineteenth century fully lives up to and even exceeds high expectations. It is a work not only of stunning scholarship but also of literary artistry. David Blights-and Frederick Douglasss-achievements have immeasurably enriched our understanding of slavery, abolitionism, the Civil War, and Reconstruction." -- James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom is a triumph-elegantly written, with much new material about one of the most famous and important men in modern history. David Blight has created a vibrant and convincing portrait of a towering figure who was also, Blight says, thoroughly and beautifully human. A great American gets the stellar biography he deserves from one our countrys greatest historians." -- Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family "David Blights incandescent Frederick Douglass is a monumental achievement of biographical empathy, historical context, and grim comprehensiveness, a much-awaited masterpiece of a life that emblematized slavery as the problem of the 19th century, as was race that of Du Boiss 20th, the legacy of both the problem of our 21st century." -- David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of W.E.B. Du Bois: The Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 "David Blight has written the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass. With extraordinary detail he illuminates the complexities of Douglasss life and career and paints a powerful portrait of one of the most important American voices of the 19th century. . . . The resulting chronicle enriches our understanding of Douglass and the challenges he faced and offers a lesson for our own troubled times. . . . Magisterial." -- Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. * The Boston Globe * "Extraordinary. . . . In Blights pages, [Douglasss] voice again rings out loud and clear, melancholy and triumphant - still prophesying, still agitating, still calling us to action." -- Adam Goodheart * The Washington Post * "A stunning achievement. Blight captures an icon in full humanity. From riveting drama in slavery and Civil War, his Douglass rises into clairvoyant genius on the blinkered centrality of race in our struggle for freedom." -- Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of America in the King Years "A consistently engrossing book that is likely to remain the definitive account of Douglasss life for many years to come." -- Eric Foner * The Nation * "Extraordinary. . . . Blight has certainly written, in the books texture and density and narrative flow-one violent and provocative incident arriving right after another-a great American biography." -- Adam Gopnik * The New Yorker * "The first major biography of Douglass in nearly three decades. . . . Blight isnt looking to overturn our understanding of Douglass, whose courage and achievements were unequivocal, but to complicate it - a measure by which this ambitious and empathetic biography resoundingly succeeds." -- Jennifer Szalai * The New York Times * "Absorbing and even moving . . . Mr. Blight displays his lifelong interest in Douglass on almost every page, and his own voice is active and eloquent throughout the narrative. It is a book that speaks to our own time as well as Douglasss. . . . A brilliant book." -- John Stauffer * The Wall Street Journal * "Cinematic and deeply engaging. . . . a tour de force of storytelling." -- Brent Staples * The New York Times Book Review * Review Quote "With the lucid prose and in-depth research that have been a hallmark of his long and distinguished career, Blight has written the definitive biography of one of the great reformers in American history. Blight beautifully treats Douglass public career and complex private life, creating a detailed tapestry that allows readers to see the inner Douglass." Excerpt from Book Frederick Douglass INTRODUCTION Behold, I have put my words in your mouth . . . to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. --JEREMIAH 1:9-10 In his speech at the dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, September 24, 2016, President Barack Obama delivered what he termed a "clear-eyed view" of a tragic and triumphant history of black Americans in the United States. He spoke of a history that is central to the larger American story, one that is both contradictory and extraordinary. He likened the African American experience to the infinite depths of Shakespeare and Scripture. The "embrace of truth as best we can know it," said the president, is "where real patriotism lies." Naming some of the major pivots of the countrys past, Obama wrapped his central theme in a remarkable sentence about the Civil War era: "Weve buttoned up our Union blues to join the fight for our freedom, weve railed against injustice for decade upon decade, a lifetime of struggle and progress and enlightenment that we see etched in Frederick Douglasss mighty leonine gaze."1 How Americans react to Douglasss gaze, indeed how we gaze back at his visage, and more important, how we read him, appropriate him, or engage his legacies, informs how we use our past to determine who we are. Douglasss life and writing emerge from nearly the full scope of the nineteenth century, representative of the best and the worst in the American spirit. Douglass constantly probed the ironies of Americas contradictions over slavery and race; few Americans used Shakespeare and the Bible to comprehend his story and that of his people as much as Douglass; and there may be no better example of an American radical patriot than the slave who became a lyrical prophet of freedom, natural rights, and human equality. Obama channeled Douglass in his dedication speech; knowingly or not, so do many people today. Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, a slave, in Talbot County, Maryland, in February 1818, the future Frederick Douglass was the son of Harriet Bailey, one of five daughters of Betsy Bailey, and with some likelihood his mothers white owner. He saw his mother for the last time in 1825, though he hardly knew her. She died the following year. Douglass lived twenty years as a slave and nearly nine years as a fugitive slave subject to recapture. From the 1840s to his death in 1895 he attained international fame as an abolitionist, editor, orator of almost unparalleled stature, and the author of three autobiographies that are classics of the genre. As a public man he began his abolitionist career two decades before America would divide and fight a civil war over slavery that he openly welcomed. Douglass was born in a backwater of the slave society of the South just as steamboats appeared in bays and on American rivers, and before the telegraph, the railroad, and the rotary press changed human mobility and consciousness. He died after the emergence of electric lights, the telephone, and the invention of the phonograph. The renowned orator and traveler loved and used most of these elements of modernity and technology. Douglass was the most photographed American of the nineteenth century, explained in this book and especially by the intrepid research of three other scholars I rely upon.2 Although it can never really be measured, he may also have been, along with Mark Twain, the most widely traveled American public figure of his century. By the 1890s, in sheer miles and countless numbers of speeches, he had few rivals as a lecturer in the golden age of oratory. It is likely that more Americans heard Douglass speak than any other public figure of his times. Indeed, to see or hear Douglass became a kind of wonder of the American world. He struggled as well, with the pleasures and perils of fame as much as anyone else in his century, with the possible exceptions of General Ulysses S. Grant or P. T. Barnum. Douglasss dilemma with fame was a matter of decades, not merely of moments, and fraught with racism. The orator and writer lived to see and interpret black emancipation, to work actively for womens rights long before they were achieved, to realize the civil rights triumphs and tragedies of Reconstruction, and to witness and contribute to Americas economic and international expansion in the Gilded Age. He lived to the age of lynching and Jim Crow laws, when America collapsed into retreat from the very victories and revolutions in race relations he had helped to win. He played a pivotal role in Americas Second Founding out of the apocalypse of the Civil War, and he very much wished to see himself as a founder and a defender of the Second American Republic. In one lifetime of antislavery, literary, and political activism Douglass was many things, and this set of apparent paradoxes make his story so attractive to biographers, as well as to so many constituencies today. He was a radical thinker and a proponent of classic nineteenth-century political liberalism; at different times he hated and loved his country; he was a ferocious critic of the United States and all of its hypocrisies, but also, after emancipation, became a government bureaucrat, a diplomat, and a voice for territorial expansion; he strongly believed in self-reliance and demanded an activist-interventionist government at all levels to free slaves, defeat the Confederacy, and protect black citizens against terror and discrimination. Douglass was a serious constitutional thinker, and few Americans have ever analyzed race with more poignancy and nuance than this mostly self-taught genius with words. He was a radical editor, writer, and activist, informed by a hard-earned pragmatism. Douglass was Jim-Crowed more times than he could count, but loved the Declaration of Independence, the natural-rights tradition, and especially the reinvented US Constitution fashioned in Reconstruction. He fought against mob violence, but believed in certain kinds of revolutionary violence. In his own career he heroically tried to forge a livelihood with his voice and pen, but fundamentally was not a self-made man, an image and symbol he touted in a famous speech, and through which modern conservatives have adopted him as a proponent of individualism. He truly believed women were equal and ought to have all fundamental rights, but he conducted his personal life sometimes as a patriarch in a difficult marriage and while overseeing a large, often dysfunctional extended family. Context and timing are often all. As James Baldwin wrote in 1948, casting sentiment and celebration aside, "Frederick Douglass was first of all a man--honest within the limitations of his character and his time, quite frequently misguided, sometimes pompous, gifted but not always a hero, and no saint at all." Baldwins unabashed bluntness is a good place for a biographer to begin to make judgments from the sources. But so are the interpretations of a very different writer, the former neoconservative turned neoliberal journalist and political theorist Michael Lind. In 1995 Lind rejected both a leftist multiculturalism and a conservative self-help individualism and called for a "new nationalism," which he termed a "multiracial/mixed race Trans-America," with Douglass as the model. Telescoping the orator though time, Lind called Douglass "the greatest American of all time." Indeed the old fugitive slave has become in the early twenty-first century a malleable figure adopted by all elements in the political spectrum, not least by current Republicans, who have claimed Douglass--quite ahistorically--as their own by elevating a single feature of his thought, black self-reliance, at the expense of his enduring radicalism. At the unveiling ceremony of the statue of Douglass in the US Capitol in 2013, chosen by the District of Columbia as one of the two representatives to which each state, and the District, are entitled, congressional Republicans walked around proudly sporting large buttons that read FREDERICK DOUGLASS WAS A REPUBLICAN.3 Douglass descendants present, as well as some of us scholars with, shall we say, different training and research, smiled and endured. Whose Douglass? is a modern question rife with meaning. This book seeks Douglasss complexity in all its forms, but never sidesteps his essential radicalism in a search for heroes we can hold dear and in common. Douglass was and is a hero; he has been all but adopted as a national figure in Ireland, Scotland, and Britain. His Narrative is read all over the world. He has appeared in countless murals, satirical political cartoons, twenty-first-century works of fiction, in paintings, and in a great deal of poetry. The sheer complexity of his thought and life makes him an icon held in some degree of commonality. He was brilliant, courageous, and possessed a truly uncommon endurance. He wrote many words that will last forever. His literary genius ranks with that of many of Americas greatest writers of his century. But he was also vain, arrogant at times, and hypersensitive to slights. He did not take well to rivals who challenged his position as the greatest spokesman of his race, although he also mentored many younger black writers and leaders. He liked being on a pedestal and did not intend to get knocked off. Douglass was thoroughly and beautifully human. Above all, Douglass is remembered most for telling his personal story--the slave who wi Description for Library Winner of the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize, among others, Yale historian Blight has been studying Frederick Douglass for most of his life. With a seven-city tour. Details ISBN1416590315 Publisher Simon & Schuster Year 2018 ISBN-10 1416590315 ISBN-13 9781416590316 Format Hardcover Publication Date 2018-11-01 Media Book Author David W. Blight Imprint Simon & Schuster Subtitle Prophet of Freedom Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Illustrations rough front; 50 b&w images thru-out; endpapers; DEWEY 973.7114092 Pages 912 Short Title Frederick Douglass Language English Audience General/Trade UK Release Date 2018-11-01 NZ Release Date 2018-11-01 US Release Date 2018-11-01 AU Release Date 2018-10-31 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:119193417;

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