People once believed in a thing called progress. The philosophers of the Enlightenment were the first to formulate this belief systematically, and to predict that science, technology, and wise policy would combine to improve human life. For centuries, despite violent setbacks, the general pattern held. Diseases were conquered, lifespans grew, technology brought countless improvements. Governments provided social safety nets and education for all. Social movements fought for equal rights for everyone. Wealth increased prodigiously, especially in the West.

Today, this belief is broken. Most people have little hope that human life will continue to improve, and they fear the future. The idea that reforms or revolutions can make progress happen is fading. The most successful social and political movements of our day channel resentment, hold out illusory dreams of returning to a lost golden age, and build walls against unwanted outsiders. What happened?

In this special lecture, historian David A. Bell, a 2025 Visiting Fellow at the Library, will trace the idea of progress back to its Enlightenment origins, examine the forms it has taken over time, and explore its relationship to our present predicaments.

About the speaker:

David A. Bell is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Department of History at Princeton where he recently served as director of Princeton’s Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies. Born in New York in 1961, he was educated at Harvard and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris before completing his doctorate at Princeton in 1991. Before returning to Princeton in 2010 he taught at Yale and Johns Hopkins, where he also served as Dean of Faculty. A specialist in the history of France, he is the author of seven books, including The Cult of the Nation in France: Inventing Nationalism, 1680-1800, The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It, and most recently Men on Horseback: The Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution. 

David A. Bell is an American Library in Paris 2024-25 Visiting Fellow.

Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.