For Emmanuel Macron, How Did Things Get So Bad, So Fast? For Emmanuel Macron, How Did Things Get So Bad, So Fast?
The fault lies with both the French president himself and the political and cultural elite that formed him.
Dec 13, 2018 / David A. Bell
The Afterlives of Charles de Gaulle The Afterlives of Charles de Gaulle
A new biography claims his vision was a stabilizing synthesis of France’s monarchical and republican political traditions. But was it?
Aug 29, 2018 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell
Waiting for Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Waiting for Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment
The genre that Pinker’s latest book most closely resembles is not 18th-century philosophie but a TED Talk.
Mar 7, 2018 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell
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?
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