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The French Republic and Muslim Schoolgirls
The French are yet again in an uproar over the clothes that girls can wear to school. Unlike in the United States, where such controversies might focus…
Sep 18
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David A. Bell
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The French Republic and Muslim Schoolgirls
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Why We Need University Courses in Public Speaking
The endless, ongoing debates about admissions to elite universities have had many unfortunate effects. One is that they have focused attention so…
Sep 10
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David A. Bell
6
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Why We Need University Courses in Public Speaking
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Playing Around with Machine Translation
There’s an old, old joke about machine translation. Supposedly, in the early 1960’s, IBM unveiled a computer program that could translate between…
Sep 5
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David A. Bell
6
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Playing Around with Machine Translation
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August 2023
The New French Far Right
My friend Peter Sahlins has an excellent article in the French newspaper Libération this week, in response to a nutty proposal by far-right essayist…
Aug 22
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David A. Bell
5
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The New French Far Right
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How to Put America's Elected Monarch on Trial
In the fall of 1792, France’s National Convention reached a momentous decision. Not only would former King Louis XVI stand trial, charged with 33…
Aug 14
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David A. Bell
7
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How to Put America's Elected Monarch on Trial
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July 2023
Biden’s Charisma Deficit, and Why it Shouldn’t Matter (but Does).
Back when he was running for president, Joe Biden came to give a speech at my university. It wasn’t a particularly memorable appearance, but one part of…
Jul 20
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David A. Bell
11
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Biden’s Charisma Deficit, and Why it Shouldn’t Matter (but Does).
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The Death of the Magazine
Marty Peretz, the former owner of The New Republic, has just come out with a memoir, and it prompts some nostalgia, and some melancholy thoughts about…
Jul 11
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David A. Bell
1
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The Death of the Magazine
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Two New Opinion Pieces
Two New Short Articles During college, and for a couple of years afterwards, I hesitated between two career paths: academia and journalism. I spent a…
Jul 3
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David A. Bell
3
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Two New Opinion Pieces
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June 2023
Drawing Historical Parallels
And the perils of apocalypticism
Jun 15
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David A. Bell
5
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Drawing Historical Parallels
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On the Writing of History
I have a new review essay in The New York Review, principally on the critic Enzo Traverso’s excellent new book Singular Pasts: The “I” in…
Jun 4
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David A. Bell
6
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On the Writing of History
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May 2023
What a French Middle School Reform Tells Us About How to Improve our University Admissions System
Several decades ago, French educators noted an unusual development in middle schools (collèges), mostly in well-to-do neighborhoods: record numbers of…
May 26
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David A. Bell
4
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What a French Middle School Reform Tells Us About How to Improve our University Admissions System
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Score One for the Evil Empire
My Search for the Ideal Reading Tablet
May 11
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David A. Bell
4
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Score One for the Evil Empire
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