David Avrom Bell
@davidavrombell.bsky.social
đ€ 1945
đ„ 276
đ 258
Historian, writer, New Yorker
Brilliant, moving review/memoir on what it takes to make a revolution, why Weatherman failed, and what the left should learn from the failure. (By my cousin).
thepointmag.com/criticism/th...
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The Way the Wind Blows | The Point Magazine
âThe duty of every revolutionary is to make the revolution.â Every New Leftist in the late 1960s was familiar with that axiom, attributed to Fidel Castro, and most took it to heart.
https://thepointmag.com/criticism/the-way-the-wind-blows/
2 days ago
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Beating AI in the Classroom
davidabell.substack.com/p/beating-ai...
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Beating AI in the Classroom
Last Monday, the faculty of Princeton University, where I teach, voted to reinstitute the proctoring of exams after more than 130 years of reliance on an honor code to prevent cheating.
https://davidabell.substack.com/p/beating-ai-in-the-classroom
4 days ago
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www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...
Nouvelle tribune dans âLe Mondeâ
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« Aux Etats-Unis et en France, des magnats comme Ellison et BollorĂ© nâont aucun scrupule Ă mettre leur pouvoir au service dâune idĂ©ologie dâextrĂȘme droite »
TRIBUNE. Dans une tribune au « Monde », lâhistorien amĂ©ricain David Bell commente lâaffaire Grasset et lâinterventionnisme « prĂ©occupant » du milliardaire français. Il juge toutefois « la situation am...
https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2026/05/14/aux-etats-unis-et-en-france-des-magnats-comme-ellison-et-bollore-n-ont-aucun-scrupule-a-mettre-leur-pouvoir-au-service-d-une-ideologie-d-extreme-droite_6689092_3232.html?lmd_medium=al
6 days ago
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New column: "Resistance and Dissent Under Trump"
davidabell.substack.com/p/resistance...
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Resistance and Dissent Under Trump
When M.
https://davidabell.substack.com/p/resistance-and-dissent-under-trump-8a0
14 days ago
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My terrific senior thesis student from the class of 2025 making a great journalistic debut in The Nation:
www.thenation.com/article/worl...
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I Partied With the Next Generation of the British Right
UK conservatism is changing dramatically, as I discovered when I hung out with some of the rightâs youngest, drunkest up-and-comers.
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/uk-conservative-youth-reform-cambridge/
14 days ago
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
Larry Glickman
23 days ago
In my new piece in
@theatlantic.com
, I argue that the consensus about birthright citizenship extended far beyond elite legal circles to readers of newspaper advice columns and letters to the editor pages for well more than a century.
nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
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Americans Once Understood Birthright Citizenship
Newspaper columnists instructed generations of citizens about the Fourteenth Amendment. Today, the country seems to have forgotten how clear the law is.
https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fideas%2F2026%2F04%2Fnewspapers-history-birthright-citizenship%2F686946%2F%3Fgift%3DGETxgkzAqEYlT7d6KgZ8RaxkPGZ9ge88elTJOaA5084%26utm_source%3Dcopy-link%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dshare&data=05%7C02%7Clbg49%40cornell.edu%7C1f04dab84d0c43be84be08dea52007fd%7C5d7e43661b9b45cf8e79b14b27df46e1%7C0%7C0%7C639129754179831334%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=otRtYNvs0%2FmhrFCsOyPSjYc%2BMNrLd2Lwwnlesk%2BJsPI%3D&reserved=0
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"The nature of democracy is to personify itself in a man"--Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, 1839. "The whole will of democracy is imbued into the elected president"--Stephen Miller, 2026.
23 days ago
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New column: "Military Arithmetic"
substack.com/home/post/p-...
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Military Arithmetic
A scrimmage in a Border Station
https://substack.com/home/post/p-195634501
24 days ago
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
The New York Review of Books
about 1 month ago
âMost casual visitors to [Notre-Dame] never realize the extent to which what they see is a creation of the nineteenth-century as well as of the Middle Ages.â â
@davidavrombell.bsky.social
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âA Vast Symphony of Stoneâ | David A. Bell
In his renovation of Notre-Dame, EugĂšne Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/a-vast-symphony-of-stone-viollet-le-duc/?utm_source=Bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2026-04-13_Bell-ViolletLeDuc-3
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
Eric Alterman
about 1 month ago
Brian Willott Farms @BrianWillott They should change the name to "Strait of Schrödinger". It's both open and closed at the same time.
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
Joerg Lau
about 1 month ago
Please send JD Vance to support Nigel Farage, the Rassemblent National and thee AfD!
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New essay: "The Life and Death of the Book Review":
libertiesjournal.com/articles/the...
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The Life and Death of the Book Review - Liberties
Book reviewing, it would seem, has been in crisis from the start. As early as 1757, a contributor to Britainâs Literary Magazine complained that âcritic is no longer an appellation of dignity,â becaus...
https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/the-life-and-death-of-the-book-review/
about 1 month ago
0
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
The New York Review of Books
about 1 month ago
EugĂšne Viollet-le-Duc âwas the architect principally responsible for the way Notre-Dame appeared in modern times, and while he adored the Middle Ages, he was anything but a pedantic traditionalist.â â
@davidavrombell.bsky.social
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âA Vast Symphony of Stoneâ | David A. Bell
In his renovation of Notre-Dame, EugĂšne Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/a-vast-symphony-of-stone-viollet-le-duc/?utm_source=Bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2026-04-08_Bell-ViolletLeDuc-2
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Just out: This brilliant, fascinating, beautifully written book by my colleague Yair Mintzker about the legend of the Wandering Jew, the truth behind it, and his own relationship to it.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
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I, Wandering Jew
Combining history, detective story, and memoir, a surprising and revealing account of the antisemitic myth of âthe Wandering Jewâ
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691272702/i-wandering-jew?srsltid=AfmBOoqrjwp69D9Ke8BuVKIxvlAPG9cBFXdULfdnCl9ptG2aREnsjTu0
about 1 month ago
0
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
The New York Review of Books
about 2 months ago
David A. Bell (
@davidavrombell.bsky.social
) on EugĂšne Viollet-le-Duc and the restoration of his nineteenth-century vision for Notre Dame
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âA Vast Symphony of Stoneâ | David A. Bell
In his renovation of Notre-Dame, EugĂšne Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/a-vast-symphony-of-stone-viollet-le-duc/?utm_source=Bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2026-04-05_Bell-ViolletLeDuc-1
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
The New York Review of Books
about 2 months ago
âWhen it comes to enslaved women, the sources can be almost entirely opaque, revealing nothing about where they came from, how they understood their condition, or what opportunities they might have had to improve it.â â
@davidavrombell.bsky.social
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Who Built France? | David A. Bell
A new history explores Franceâs empire from the perspective of the indigenous and enslaved people who participated, willingly or not, in its creation.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/who-built-france-by-flesh-and-toil-lamotte/?utm_source=Bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2026-03-30_Bell-Lamotte-3
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www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
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âA Vast Symphony of Stoneâ | David A. Bell
In his renovation of Notre-Dame, EugĂšne Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/23/a-vast-symphony-of-stone-viollet-le-duc/
about 2 months ago
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New column: The failure of âNo Kingsâ and the need for an effective opposition.â
open.substack.com/pub/davidabe...
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America in 2026
In this season of ruin, I think from time to time of Shelleyâs brilliantly savage sonnet âEngland in 1819â (see below), written in white-hot anger against his countryâs corrupt elite in the aftermath ...
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidabell/p/america-in-2026?r=7gbbv&utm_medium=ios
about 2 months ago
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From a colleague at the New School:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRPP...
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What A Wonder School (This Would Be)
YouTube video by Austerity Singers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRPPcAKPlxc
about 2 months ago
0
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
The New York Review of Books
about 2 months ago
David A. Bell (
@davidavrombell.bsky.social
) on the indigenous and enslaved people who built the French empire
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Who Built France? | David A. Bell
A new history explores Franceâs empire from the perspective of the indigenous and enslaved people who participated, willingly or not, in its creation.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/who-built-france-by-flesh-and-toil-lamotte/?utm_source=Bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2026-03-26_Bell-Lamotte-1
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
George Takei
2 months ago
Sen. Ossoff doesn't tolerate any of Tulsi Gabbardâs B.S.
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A new review of mine, in the New York Review of Books.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
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Who Built France? | David A. Bell
A new history explores Franceâs empire from the perspective of the indigenous and enslaved people who participated, willingly or not, in its creation.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/04/09/who-built-france-by-flesh-and-toil-lamotte/
2 months ago
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New column: Normandy 1944/2026:
open.substack.com/pub/davidabe...
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Normandy 1944/2026
One of the best parts of my job is that every few years I accompany a group of Princeton students to Normandy to see the sites where the American military landed in June of 1944, and then to follow th...
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidabell/p/normandy-19442026?r=7gbbv&utm_medium=ios
2 months ago
0
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
Princeton University Press
3 months ago
In The Future That Was,
@durba.bsky.social
offers a pathbreaking account of how Third World women seized the means of knowledge production to fight against rising authoritarianism & imagine a future freer than our present. Out March 17 (12 May UK pub):
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
#History
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My newest column: âAnti-Liberal Historiansâ
open.substack.com/pub/davidabe...
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Anti-Liberal Historians
Liberals canât catch a break.
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidabell/p/anti-liberal-historians?r=7gbbv&utm_medium=ios
2 months ago
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
Home of the Brave
3 months ago
Tulsi Gabbard released a fundraising video in 2019 titled "Trump's Path To War With Iran" "We've gotta stop Donald Trump from starting a war with Iran."
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
John Collins
3 months ago
This one hits hard.
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Student uses AI to summarize readings, then feeds summary back into AI so it can write his term paper. Professor uses AI to grade the paper and then to write the student a recommendation. Employer uses AI to read the recommendation. Student is hired, and then soon replaced by AI. Whee!
3 months ago
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Really dangerous. Do you want strangers on the street to look at you and immediately be told your name, profession, employer, religion, party affiliationâmaybe your address and tax bracket? Meta claims it will strictly limit the features. Do you believe them?
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
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Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/meta-facial-recognition-smart-glasses.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
3 months ago
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
BibliothĂšque de Port-Royal
3 months ago
Un
#colloque
sur le thĂšme "De lâAmĂ©rique Ă la France : Beaumarchais et lâexpĂ©rience des RĂ©volutions" est organisĂ© du 1er au 4 octobre 2026 au MusĂ©e de la RĂ©volution française de Vizille. Un appel Ă communications a Ă©tĂ© lancĂ© :
archibeau.hypotheses.org/de-lamerique...
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De lâAmĂ©rique Ă la France Beaumarchais et lâexpĂ©rience des RĂ©volutions
Appel Ă communications  Du 1er au 4 octobre 2026 Colloque international Lieux : MusĂ©e de la RĂ©volution française (Vizille) Archives dĂ©partementales de lâIsĂšre (Saint-Martin-dâHĂšres)  ComitĂ© dâorgan...
https://archibeau.hypotheses.org/de-lamerique-a-la-france-beaumarchais-et-lexperience-des-revolutions
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New column: On Viewpoint Diversity.
davidabell.substack.com/p/on-viewpoi...
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On Viewpoint Diversity
For many years now, conservative and centrist critics have claimed that elite American universities suffer from a lack of âviewpoint diversity.â Even as these institutions made recruiting women and un...
https://davidabell.substack.com/p/on-viewpoint-diversity?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true
3 months ago
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My new column on the deteriorating Franco-American relationship: âWe Are Not an American Colony.â
open.substack.com/pub/davidabe...
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"We are not an American colony"
Some 233 years ago, French interference in American internal affairs led to a strengthening of the party in power in the USA.
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidabell/p/we-are-not-an-american-colony?r=7gbbv&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
4 months ago
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New column: "The Dumb-roe Doctrine"
davidabell.substack.com/p/the-dumb-r...
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The Dumb-roe Doctrine
In 2004, The New York Times Magazine quoted an unnamed advisor to President George W.
https://davidabell.substack.com/p/the-dumb-roe-doctrine
4 months ago
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âThey talk very loud, very fast, and all together. If they ask you a Question, before you can utter 3 Words of your Answer, they will break out upon you, againâand talk away.â John Adams, on New Yorkers, August 23, 1774.
5 months ago
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New column. 2025: The Year of Trump?
davidabell.substack.com/p/2025-the-y...
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2025: The Year of Trump?
Many years ago, I asked a friend what label he thought future historians would give to the period we were living through.
https://davidabell.substack.com/p/2025-the-year-of-trump
5 months ago
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Upcoming two-part graduate student conference at Princeton and Sciences-Po on "The French Revolution and the Sacred." Call for papers here:
fit.princeton.edu/events/frenc...
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The French Revolution and the Sacred
âRevolution continues Christianity, and it contradicts it. It is, at the same time, its heir and its adversary.â â Jules Michelet (1848)In the years leading up to the bicentenary commemorations of 198...
https://fit.princeton.edu/events/french-revolution-and-sacred
5 months ago
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A new column of mine in the Chronicle of Higher Education, on the in-fighting at the American Historical Association:
www.chronicle.com/article/acad...
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Opinion | Academic Politics at Their Most Counterproductive
The American Historical Association is being torn apart over membersâ views on Israel.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/academic-politics-at-their-most-counterproductive
5 months ago
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How to Celebrate the 250th?
open.substack.com/pub/davidabe...
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How to Celebrate the 250th?
Historians of the United States are in a bind.
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidabell/p/how-to-celebrate-the-250th?r=7gbbv&utm_medium=ios
6 months ago
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
Larry Glickman
6 months ago
Perhaps the most damning words in this article are the claim that this is "a bitter conservative family fight" over the neo-Nazi, Nick Fuentes. What does this say about the conservative family?
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My newest review, of Lynn Hunt's "The Revolutionary Self," in The Nation:
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
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The Invention of the Modern Self
How did the idea of the individual come into being?
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/revolutionary-self-lynn-hunt/#
6 months ago
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www.chronicle.com/article/why-...
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Opinion | Why Harvard Students Are Afraid of Bâs
For many students at elite colleges, anything less than excellence feels like failure.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-harvard-students-are-afraid-of-bs
7 months ago
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New column: On grade inflation and university culture today.
davidabell.substack.com/p/no-a-for-e...
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No A for Effort
A friend of mine once told me that on his first day at Stanford Law School, the dean greeted the incoming students with an unsettling remark: âIâm sorry to tell you this, but half of you are about to ...
https://davidabell.substack.com/p/no-a-for-effort
7 months ago
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
Samuel Moyn
7 months ago
Sigh
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/o...
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Opinion | Resistance to Trump Isnât Enough
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/opinion/trump-presidency-congress-resistance.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
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A new essay of mine on the situation in France:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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France has survived revolutions and wars: its crisis now is deep, but not terminal | David A Bell
From the raid on the Louvre to the spectacle of Sarkozy in jail, it is tempting to think France is on a downward spiral. But history tells the tale of its resilience, says historian David A Bell
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/25/france-revolution-war-crisis-louvre-raid-nicolas-sarkozy
7 months ago
0
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
The New York Review of Books
7 months ago
David A. Bell
@davidavrombell.bsky.social
on the Enlightenment⯠and race
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A Baleful Legacy | David A. Bell
Enlightenment writers who proposed ways of improving and even perfecting the human species laid the theoretical foundations of modern racism.
https://buff.ly/hpuyweP
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David Avrom Bell
Itay Lotem
7 months ago
This is a welcome post about expertise, but even more so about the dangers of total suspicion and the nihilism it encourages. Thinking of societies fueled by total suspicion always gets me back to experiences in Russia recently, but also to close post-Soviet contacts. One story always returns 1/4
add a skeleton here at some point
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David Avrom Bell
Berin SzĂłka
7 months ago
âExpertise is⊠a process, driven by trial and error. ÊŒBelieving in the scienceÊŒ doesnât mean taking what scientists say at any moment as holy writâthe scientists themselves donât do this. It means believing in the process and accepting that what is seen as truth today may look like error tomorrow.â
add a skeleton here at some point
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Do we need to "stop trusting the experts"?
davidabell.substack.com/p/do-we-need...
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Do We Need to "Stop Trusting the Experts"?
(As RFK, Jr. Urges)
https://davidabell.substack.com/p/do-we-need-to-stop-trusting-the-experts
7 months ago
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My newest piece for the NYRB, on William Max Nelson's excellent book on Enlightenment biopolitics:
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
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A Baleful Legacy | David A. Bell
Enlightenment writers who proposed ways of improving and even perfecting the human species laid the theoretical foundations of modern racism.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/11/06/a-baleful-legacy-enlightenment-biopolitics-nelson/
7 months ago
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reposted by
David Avrom Bell
Dave Weigel
7 months ago
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXXQ...
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I Tracked Down The Company Ruining Restaurants
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXXQTzQXRFc
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