‘A Vast Symphony of Stone’ | David A. Bell In his renovation of Notre-Dame, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.

“Most 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.” —@davidavrombell.bsky.social

Brian Willott Farms
@BrianWillott
They should change the name to "Strait of Schrödinger". It's both open and closed at the same time.

Hah hah. There is no Jeremiah 53. Where did he get this from? Game of Thrones?

Hah hah hah. There is of course no Jeremiah 53. Where did he get this from?

Hah hah hah. Of course there is no Jeremiah 53.

Please send JD Vance to support Nigel Farage, the Rassemblent National and thee AfD!

New essay: "The Life and Death of the Book Review":
libertiesjournal.com/articles/the...

‘A Vast Symphony of Stone’ | David A. Bell In his renovation of Notre-Dame, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc “was 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.” —@davidavrombell.bsky.social

I, Wandering Jew Combining history, detective story, and memoir, a surprising and revealing account of the antisemitic myth of “the Wandering Jew”

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...

‘A Vast Symphony of Stone’ | David A. Bell In his renovation of Notre-Dame, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.

David A. Bell (@davidavrombell.bsky.social) on Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and the restoration of his nineteenth-century vision for Notre Dame

Who Built France? | David A. Bell A new history explores France’s empire from the perspective of the indigenous and enslaved people who participated, willingly or not, in its creation.

“When 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.” —@davidavrombell.bsky.social

‘A Vast Symphony of Stone’ | David A. Bell In his renovation of Notre-Dame, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc projected his own Romantic vision of the Middle Ages onto the Gothic cathedral.

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

America in 2026 In this season of ruin, I think from time to time of Shelley’s brilliantly savage sonnet “England in 1819” (see below), written in white-hot anger against his country’s corrupt elite in the aftermath ...

New column: The failure of “No Kings” and the need for an effective opposition.”

open.substack.com/pub/davidabe...

What A Wonder School (This Would Be) YouTube video by Austerity Singers

From a colleague at the New School:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRPP...

Who Built France? | David A. Bell A new history explores France’s empire from the perspective of the indigenous and enslaved people who participated, willingly or not, in its creation.

David A. Bell (@davidavrombell.bsky.social) on the indigenous and enslaved people who built the French empire

Tweet from Headquarters quoting an exchange between Sen. Jon Ossoff and Tulsi Gabbard during a Senate hearing, with Ossoff accusing her of evading questions to align with the White House. The image shows both speaking during a congressional hearing.

Sen. Ossoff doesn't tolerate any of Tulsi Gabbard’s B.S.

Who Built France? | David A. Bell A new history explores France’s empire from the perspective of the indigenous and enslaved people who participated, willingly or not, in its creation.

A new review of mine, in the New York Review of Books.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

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...

New column: Normandy 1944/2026:

open.substack.com/pub/davidabe...

The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism by Durba Mitra. How Third World women seized the means of knowledge production to fight against rising authoritarianism and imagine a future freer than our present.

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

Thank you!

Anti-Liberal Historians Liberals can’t catch a break.

My newest column: “Anti-Liberal Historians”

open.substack.com/pub/davidabe...

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."

This one hits hard.

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!

Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses

Really dangerous. Do you want strangers on the street to look at you and immediately be told your name, profession, employer, religion, party affiliation—maybe your address and tax bracket? Meta claims it will strictly limit the features. Do you believe them?

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

De l’Amérique à la France Beaumarchais et l’expérience des Révolutions Appel à communications    Du 1er au 4 octobre 2026 Colloque international Lieux : Musée de la Révolution française (Vizille) Archives départementales de l’Isère (Saint-Martin-d’Hères)   Comité d’organ...

Un #colloque sur le thème "De l’Amérique à la France : Beaumarchais et l’expérience des Révolutions" est organisé du 1er au 4 octobre 2026 au Musée de la Révolution française de Vizille.
Un appel à communications a été lancé : archibeau.hypotheses.org/de-lamerique...

On Viewpoint Diversity For many years now, conservative and centrist critics have claimed that elite American universities suffer from a lack of “viewpoint diversity.” Even as these institutions made recruiting women and un...

New column: On Viewpoint Diversity.
davidabell.substack.com/p/on-viewpoi...

Thank you Jack.

My new column on the deteriorating Franco-American relationship: “We Are Not an American Colony.”

open.substack.com/pub/davidabe...

The Dumb-roe Doctrine In 2004, The New York Times Magazine quoted an unnamed advisor to President George W.

New column: "The Dumb-roe Doctrine"
davidabell.substack.com/p/the-dumb-r...