What Causes Some Cities to Become Sites of Revolution? What Causes Some Cities to Become Sites of Revolution?
To understand the American and French revolutions, one must look not simply at their origins in the wider world but also at how particular environments could become crucibles of in...
Jan 25, 2018 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell
What Can Emmanuel Macron Accomplish as France’s President? What Can Emmanuel Macron Accomplish as France’s President?
The resentments that led a third of the electorate to vote for Le Pen are not going to disappear anytime soon.
May 9, 2017 / David A. Bell
Le Pen’s Long Shadow Le Pen’s Long Shadow
If you want to understand the wave of right-wing populism erupting in Europe and the United States, France is a good place to start.
Apr 4, 2017 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell
Fake News Is Not the Real Media Threat We’re Facing Fake News Is Not the Real Media Threat We’re Facing
What the conservative media machine does is much more dangerous.
Dec 22, 2016 / David A. Bell
Haiti’s Jacobin Haiti’s Jacobin
A new biography explores the mysterious life and times of Toussaint Louverture.
Nov 2, 2016 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell
Enlightened. Elitist. Undemocratic. Enlightened. Elitist. Undemocratic.
Has the EU followed a path first blazed by Napoleon?
May 27, 2015 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell
The Collaborator The Collaborator
The Unfree French looks at the German occupation of Vichy; Bad Faith is a grim biography of a French collaborator.
Nov 22, 2006 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell
Profane Illuminations Profane Illuminations
New biographies of Rousseau and Voltaire help us appreciate how very fragile the eighteenth century's great movement of ideas was, and how remarkable it is that the Enlightenment n...
Nov 17, 2005 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell