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David A. Bell
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My Freedom, My Choice
A new book illuminates how freedom became associated with choice and questions whether that has been a good thing—for women in particular.
by
David A. Bell
via
New York Review of Books
on
June 5, 2025
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
Related Excerpts
Viewing 1–8 of 8
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
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
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
Missed America
When all the bad things America did are true, but none of the good things, something is amiss.
by
Johann N. Neem
via
The Hedgehog Review
on
July 7, 2023
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
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
