David A. Bell

David A. Bell is the author, most recently, of Men on Horseback: The Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution. He teaches history at Princeton and is writing a history of the Enlightenment.

Waiting for Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment

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? 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

macron victory louvre

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 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 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 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. 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

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