There is nothing too surprising about this short interview with Prof. David Blight, but I thought it would be a nice way to end the work week. Teachers may find this useful as a way of introducing basic questions of historical memory with students. Blight touches on how Americans remember the Civil War, race, the Civil War Centennial and Sesquicentennial, and Barack Obama’s place in this narrative.
Check out Blight’s Yale lectures on the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Civil War memory.