Hello everyone. Please see and attend the next "Trump vs. History" webinar, sponsored by the New Republic. Monday, 4 pm eastern, free on zoom. I will moderate a discussion with the three great historians, Ed Ayers, Molly Worthen, Geraldo Cadava. We fight back! www.eventbrite.com/e/trump-vers...

The emperor has no clothes and he is spreading hatred, ignorance, and corruption all around. We have to convert despair into a fighting spirit! Save the American republic!

Federal troops to Portland? Portlanders: don't take the bait. He wants a violent confrontation in order to use those troops. For now hold silent marches with muffled drums, bring flowers, sing songs of freedom, keep it all peaceful and non-violent. Confrontation will come in time.

Honor US soldiers at Wounded Knee? Take down 30 images about slavery at Harpers Ferry? Indict your political enemies in worse abuses of law and Constitutional norms than Watergate? Historians and everyone who cares - fight back! We are beyond simply saving democracy; we have to stop a TYRANT!

New op ed in this morning's New Republic about the rhetoric of "civil war" on this anniversary of battle of Antietam, single bloodiest day in American history. David Blight newrepublic.com/article/2005...

This piece in Forbes today by Mary Beth Gasman minces no words in calling out the Trump regime and what it is trying to do to American history. Very effective essay. www.forbes.com/sites/marybe...

Good news. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, has graciously accepted my invitation to two debates with his fellow historians about American history on the eve of the US 250th. Details of time and sites are being worked out. One likely in a red state, and one is a blue state.

Wrong link in previous post. Here is correct CNN video. David Blight video.snapstream.net/Play/8mJmNdV...

President Trump: Meet Frederick Douglass and his Narrative. Read!!! And do not say another public word about slavery until you get educated. Please stop insulting Americans with your unbounded ignorance.

Kevin Roberts at Heritage Foundation has not yet accepted my invitation to debate historians. If anyone has direct access at Heritage, please encourage him. The Trump History department should cite their sources and defend their arguments in public.

Trump's rant about museums: accuses "woke" curators of portraying "how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been..." The first claim is obscene, the second is simply stupid. Ignorance in the mind of a tyrant is a very dangerous thing. Historians - awake!!

Good morning. Here is the cover and all 11 essays of new special issue of the TNR by historians ighting back against Trump administration's assaults on history, museums, archives, libraries. No surrender among historians. newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...

Kevin Roberts and the Heritage Foundation: Come out and debate historians about the current and future practice of American history. See the current New Republic. We respectfully invite you to an open, civil debate. -David Blight, for American historians and teachers eager to fight back.

Good morning. Here is the cover and all 11 essays of new special issue of the TNR by historians ighting back against Trump administration's assaults on history, museums, archives, libraries. No surrender among historians. newrepublic.com/magazine?utm...

See new essays in New Republic. I have gathered and edited eleven essays by historians on teaching and writing history in the time of Trump. We are fighting back! I'll be on MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell tonight at 10 to talk about the special issue of TNR. newrepublic.com/series/67/tr...

With Akhil Amar, I just helped direct this extraordinary teacher seminar on the history of the Constitution in Philly at National Constitution Center, generously sponsored by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute and OAH. Our comrades, the teachers, were magnificent in knowledge and dedication! Bravo!

Trump's lawyers, bound by vows of loyalty to their profoundly ignorant leader, are constitutionally cherry-picking their way to autocracy. They are patient; we citizens should not be!

Birthright citizenship: as old in England as Sir Edward Coke's 1608 opinion in "Calvin's Case," and at least as early as the Prudence Crandall case before Connecticut Supreme Court in 1834. The principle: when a government expects "obedience" it must provide "protection."

Trump's sense of triumph yesterday over SCOTUS decision on nation-wide injunctions derives from steady impulse against birthright citizenship. NO Mr. Trump, the Civil War did not end in 1969 and section 1 of the 14th is not intended only for children of slaves. We cannot allow ignorance to win!!!

An 800% increase in the ICE finding in the new budget bill out of House and now before the Senate? God help us. Trump wants confrontation; peacefully, without burning cars, people should give it to him.

When barbarians enter your land and territory, do not plan to negotiate. Build your defenses and get ready to drive them out. At universities and all over American education we need to prepare, as William James said, for "the moral equivalent of War."

Published this piece on the origins of Memorial Day in Charleston in 1865 fourteen years ago in the NY Times. And see Drew Faust's piece in today's Times. We do indeed need to "stand up!" DB www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/o...

I have now been on the Meidas Touch Podcasts at least three times of late. Here is on of them. DB www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

Trump: rude, cruel, pitiful, a really bad White House reality show, with international leaders such as the president of South Africa. Trump should be suspended from school by his junior high dean.

National Park Service Directed to Implement Trump's Executive Order, 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History' #NationalParks 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

Here is the video of my commencement address at Michigan State on May 3. Move about 20 minutes into the video. I called it "History Comes for You Too." video.wkar.org/video/colleg...

I gave the commencement address at Michigan State last Saturday for the social science grads and families. 12,000 people in the Breslin Center. I'll put up video as soon as I get it. My subject was Trumpist attacks on higher ed and on history. www.linkedin.com/posts/zenell...

"In a dark time, the eye begins to see." - Theodore Roethke

Disagree. Chris Murphy has certainly found his voice. Bernie and AOC and many more. Keep your eyes open.

Did anyone in the press corps offer her any education? The Trump cabinet as a group may be earning a special place in a large corner of hell.

On Saturday, May 3, at 9 am, in the Breslin Center, I am delivering the commencement address to all the Arts and Science graduates at my alma mater, Michigan State University. Trepidation! "History Never Takes a Day Off" is title. It is not a light springtime message. I'll report how it goes.

HISTORIANS: Organize and Fight Back! see appeal from OAH. mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#se...

Trump may yet unify teachers, academics, and all involved in education, museums, historic sites. This is as William James put it, our "moral equivalent of war? Mobilization requires solidarity beyond righteousness, beyond individualism, beyond our singular zones of interest.

Harvard stepped up and told Trump's people no! Now the fight really begins. Ignorant bullies can be tripped up and then thrown down. But remember, despots do not stop when embarrassed; they attack more.

Plenty of complaints about Harvard over the years, but a proud Harvard alum today. wapo.st/4cH9vy3

“Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” Harvard attorneys wrote to federal officials. “Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms.” If you’ve never given to Harvard, GIVE NOW! search.app/M76p3GzTmMuc...

Lame debate about whether we are in a constitutional crisis. Trump is defying a Supreme Court order. No more evidence is necessary. The scene at White House today with the president of El Salvador was obscene. It appears the law cannot or will not contain Trump and his minions.

Teachers and historians and museum curators of all kinds: plan a lecture/panel at your local public library, a school, a church, a union hall, or any civic space and DEFEND HISTORY AND LIBRARIES FROM TRUMPIST DENIGRATION. LET'S FIGHT BACK!

Yes our plenary in Chicago where almost 1800 historians gathered was all about the current assaults on historians and museums. CNN would have done well to cover it as would lots of other media.

This has a short summary of my presidential address, "Historians' Voices in Times of Peril." I will put up the full video of speech as soon as I have it. DB www.processhistory.org/saturday-and....

A week from today, April 3, the Organization of American Historians annual meeting convenes in Chicago. We are working to make it not only a scholars' convention, but a collective rally in defense of history against the threats to what we practice, including executive order of March 27,

Today's executive order by Trump purporting to "restore sanity" to American history is nothing less than a declaration of war on historians and the Smithsonian from top to bottom. Their assumption is that we are too weak and divided to fight back. We need our own declaration and plan to fight.

If we cannot save libraries from Trumpist we may not be able to save anything. First come lies and the destruction of truth and access to it. Then come atrocities.

Librarians, now is not the time to be quiet! #libsky #booksky #edusky

Russia has kidnapped tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Putin was indicted for this crime. Yale has a unit searching for them. Musk eliminated the funding. inews.co.uk/news/world/m...

80 years ago... and, thus why they don't like history taught or critical thinkers! #academicsky

📌 #ResistToolkit #LawSky Know your protest rights

The History of Arlington National Cemetery is the Story of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

And the Democratic senators alienated or lost its most energetic voters. I am becoming an independent after 35 years as a Democrat. I no longer trust the party to act in the country's best interests, and it's certainly not worth the barrage of fundraising requests to keep hoping.