Sep 27, 2021 - The 2021 Carls-Schwerdfeger History Lectureship will feature prize-winning historian Dr. David A. Bell, the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions at Princeton University. He is an internationally recognized authority on the history of early modern France and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Bell will speak twice on Monday, October 25. At 2:00 p.m., he will lecture on 鈥淣apoleon Bonaparte and the Origins of Modern Total War鈥� in the Carl Grant Events Center. His evening talk will be on 鈥淕eorge Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution鈥� at 7:15 p.m. in the G. M. Savage Memorial Chapel. Masks are recommended for these lectures. Both lectures are free and open to the public.
After graduating magna cum laude with a B.A. in history and literature in 1983 from Harvard University where he was Phi Beta Kappa, Bell earned his M.A. (1987) and Ph.D. (1991) in history at Princeton University. He also spent the 1983-1984 academic year studying at the highly esteemed 脡cole Normale Sup茅rieure in Paris, France, with a fellowship from Harvard.
Bell is a prize-winning author of seven books. His books include: (2020); (2018), coauthored with Anthony Grafton; (2016); (2015); (2007), for which he won the Louis Gottschalk Prize from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies; (2001), which earned him the Leo Gershoy Prize from the American Historical Association; and (1994), for which he received the Pinkney Prize from the Society for French Historical Studies.
Prior to his appointment to the history faculty at Princeton in 2010, Bell taught at Johns Hopkins University (1996-2010) where he also served as the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences (2007-2010), and at Yale University (1990-1996). In addition, Bell has been a Visiting Professor at two of France鈥檚 most prestigious institutions of higher learning and a Visiting Fellow at Tokyo University in Japan.