Person

David A. Bell

Bylines

Ego-Histories

The more that historians make their own experiences an explicit part of their work, the harder it will become to let the sources speak clearly.

by David A. Bell via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023
Two Cheers for Presentism

An essay by the president of the American Historical Association generated a firestorm of criticism — but got some things right.

by David A. Bell via The Chronicle of Higher Education on August 23, 2022
What is Left of History?

Joan Scott’s "On the Judgment of History" asks us to imagine the past without the idea of progress. But what gets left out in the process?

by David A. Bell via The Nation on May 2, 2022
The Zelensky Myth

Why we should resist hero-worshipping Ukraine’s president.

by David A. Bell via New Statesman on March 24, 2022
Whose Freedom?

On the ways that people have conflated freedom with whiteness but pays too little attention to the force of freedom as a concept.

by David A. Bell via New York Review of Books on September 2, 2021
Are We Living in an Age of Strongmen?

A new book by Ruth Ben-Ghiat discusses the past and present challenges posed by authoritarianism, but misses the conditions in which it arises.

by David A. Bell via The Nation on April 3, 2021
The Contagious Revolution

For a long time, European historians paid little attention to the extraordinary series of events that now goes by the name of the Haitian Revolution.

by David A. Bell via New York Review of Books on December 19, 2019
Where Does Truth Fit into Democracy?

In modern democracies, who gets to determine what counts as truth—an elite of experts or the people as a whole?

by David A. Bell via The Nation on January 24, 2019
Is it Still Okay to Venerate George Washington and Thomas Jefferson?

The president's stand on the Confederate hero represents the kind of moral relativism that conservatives usually decry.

by David A. Bell via Washington Post on August 17, 2017

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“The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire,” by Thomas Cole (1835-36), depicting Greek classical style buildings and opulence.

History Is Always About Politics

What the recent debates over presentism get wrong.

by Joan Wallach Scott via The Chronicle of Higher Education on August 24, 2022

Painting of: Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt, 1867, by Jean-Leon Gerome.

What Is the Relationship Between Democracy and Authoritarianism?

The Age of Revolution inaugurated a new era in modern history defined not only by new democratic institutions but also by despots and charismatic leaders.

by Tyler Stovall via The Nation on December 14, 2021

Simon Bolívar Crossing the Andes, after a painting by Arayo Gómez, 1857; it is based on Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Democracy’s Demagogues

A new history of five heroes of the revolutionary period considers the power and instability of charismatic leadership.

by Ferdinand Mount via New York Review of Books on January 14, 2021

Beyond the End of History

Historians' prohibition on 'presentism' crumbles under the weight of events.

by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Chronicle of Higher Education on August 14, 2020

Charismatic Models

There is, and always has been, a vanishingly thin line between charismatic democratic rulers and charismatic authoritarians.

by Scott Spillman via The Point on July 26, 2020

Collage including the Statue of Liberty, Donald Trump, and the U.S. flag.

The Habit America’s Historians Just Can’t Give Up

If fact-checking could fix us, we’d be a utopia by now.

by Matthew E. Stanley, Paul M. Renfro via Slate on January 9, 2023

‘Flight of Lord Dunmore’; postcard, 1907.

The Paradox of the American Revolution

Recent books by Woody Holton and Alan Taylor offer fresh perspectives on early US history but overstate the importance of white supremacy as its driving force.

by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on December 24, 2021

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