American Oracle

David W. Blight

“David Blight has written a searching and suggestive book.”—Andrew Delbanco, The New York Review of Books

“This book is several things, suggests Blight, but he hits it best when he characterizes it as a ‘discussion of four Americans in search of their country’s history.’ In doing so, he gives us more than a history lesson: he presents an introspective journey into America’s most complex and enigmatic historical event through the minds of four exceptional storytellers. He offers us the opportunity to revisit a monumental tragedy and thereby invites us to probe its meaning. If we do, we will not only be reacquainted with a defining American moment but we will also learn more about who America is, and why.”—James T. Crouse, Times Higher Education

“As the sesquicentennial of the Civil War (2011–15) begins, historian Blight examines how we handled the centennial, which occurred at the infancy of the civil rights movement, and the persistent questioning about all the elements that were at the heart of the nation-rending civil conflict. History and great literature blend beautifully as Blight conducts his examination of the works of four writers—Robert Penn Warren, southern-born novelist; Bruce Catton, historian and journalist; Edmund Wilson, literary critic; and James Baldwin, northern-born essayist and race critic—providing background and context for their works and their views of the centennial and all its commercialism and hypocrisy. From their different perspectives, the four offer ‘a way of understanding the Civil War both as something very American and as an event in a larger human drama.’ Blight explores Warren’s straightforward look at the racism at the heart of the war and the continued hypocrisy of southern commemorations, Catton’s cold-eyed examination of the cost of war, Wilson’s deconstruction of the war as a unifier of the nation, and Baldwin’s chastisement of American racism. Throughout, Blight explores the mythology that came out of the Civil War and the sense of American redemption that did not include any examination of the tragedies of racism and slavery.”—Vanessa Bush, Booklist (starred review)

“David W. Blight’s richly interpretive American Oracle contextualizes the sentimentalized celebration of the Civil War in the early 1960s within the tense realities of the civil rights era and the Cold War. Blight unravels the complexities of Civil War memory and meaning at a time when most white Americans considered restoration of the Union, not emancipation, as the war’s grand result.”—John David Smith, The Charlotte Observer

“Overall a valuable contribution to historical understanding.”—D. Schaefer, Choice

“This is a distinctive addition to the books about the Civil War and how we view it on the conflict’s 150th anniversary.”—Publishers Weekly

“Truly a tour de force… intellectual history and criticism at the highest level, told with passion and artistry.”—Fitzhugh Brundage, author of The Southern Past

“The ghosts of the Civil War never leave us, as David Blight knows perhaps better than anyone, and in this superb book he masterfully unites two distant but inextricably bound events with insightful dissection of the works of four of our best writers, writers obsessed with coming to terms with our original sin.”—Ken Burns

“Perceptive, eloquent, and timely, Blight’s book should find a wide and appreciative audience.”—Gary Gallagher, author of The Union War

“The Civil War has given us not only great history, literature, and art, but also great works of thought. David Blight enriches this canon by probing the war’s power to haunt and inspire every generation. American Oracle is intellectual history at its best—deep terrain, mined by a scholar who brings gems to the page.”—Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic

“During the middle decades of the twentieth century the United States faced a dual challenge—of civility and memory, each one race-related. David Blight develops deep biographical links to connect and explain those troubled years, and does so with eloquence. He thereby adds a brilliant new aspect to the field of American memory studies.”—Michael Kammen, Newton C. Farr Professor of American History and Culture (Emeritus) at Cornell University and Past President of the Organization of American Historians

“Blight’s elegant narrative enables us to see the full, enduring, significance of the Civil War in the consciousness of four major writers. An outstanding achievement.”—Caryl Phillips, author of Dancing in the Dark

Related Links

• Read a New York Times piece coauthored by David Blight on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for a “Second Emancipation Proclamation”
• Watch Blight moderate a roundtable discussion with other noted Civil War scholars, “The American Civil War: Legacies for Our Own Time,” at Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center
• Read Blight’s Slate article about the historiography of the Civil War—specifically, about a controversial 1962 book called Patriotic Gore
• Read Blight’s list of the five best Civil War novels at the Wall Street Journal
• Read an interview with Blight about his new approach to Civil War memory at the Chronicle of Higher Education blog PageView
• Read Blight’s exploration of Frederick Douglass’s frustrated response to Lincoln’s inaugural address in the New York Times Civil War blog Disunion
• Listen to an interview with Blight on WGBH’s Forum Network
• Access materials for Blight’s class on the Civil War and Reconstruction at Open Yale Courses
• Visit David W. Blight’s website
• View more HUP titles on abolition and the American Civil War

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