BRATTLEBORO — David Blight, acclaimed author of Race and Reunion, will consider how Americans looked back on the Civil War during its centennial in the 1960s in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library on Wednesday, Dec. 7.
His talk, “American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7 p.m.
Blight's talk will focus on the early 1960s, during the growing Civil Rights movement, and how people then viewed the 100th anniversary of the Civil War. Blight will explore the gulf between remembrance and reality.
Blight is a professor of American history and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University. He is one of the nation's foremost authorities on the U.S. Civil War and its legacy.
He is the author of A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom (Harcourt, 2007). He is also the author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Harvard University Press, 2001), which received eight book awards. His newest book is American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era.
The Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. Talks in Brattleboro are held at Brooks Memorial Library.
Upcoming Brattleboro talks include “An Evening with Ken Burns” with acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns on Jan. 4 (to be held at the Latchis Theatre); “Willa Cather's Prairie Landscapes” with Amherst College professor Michele Barale on Feb. 1; “The Book of Kells” with Dartmouth professor Jane Carroll on March 7.
“American Oracle” is sponsored by Brattleboro Historical Society. It is Vermont Reads/Big Read event and a National Endowment for the Humanities We the People project: Sharing the lessons of history with all Americans.
For more information, contact Brooks Memorial Library at 802-254-5290 or contact the Vermont Humanities Council at 802-262-2626.