Dr. David Bell

Biography

David Bell is a historian specializing in the early modern Atlantic world, with a particular interest in the political culture of Enlightenment and revolutionary France. He attended graduate school at Princeton and studied under Robert Darnton, receiving his Ph.D. in 1991. He taught at Yale from 1990 to 1996 and then at Johns Hopkins from 1996 to 2010, where he held the Andrew W. Mellon chair in the Humanities and served a term as Dean of the Faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences. He joined the Princeton faculty in 2010. His current book project, tentatively titled "Opening Western Mind: A New History of the Enlightenment," is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He has also delivered a lecture series at the Collège de France titled "Vers une nouvelle histoire des Lumières" in spring 2025. His significant publications include major works such as "Lawyers and Citizens" (Oxford University Press, 1994), "Cult, Nation, and France" (Harvard University Press, 2001), "Total War" (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), and several co-authored and co-edited volumes. His books have received recognition from various prestigious organizations, and he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Research Interests