David A. Bell

The Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution. In Men on Horseback, the Princeton University historian David A. Bell offers a dramatic new interpretation of modern politics, arguing that the history of democracy is inextricable from the history of charisma, its shadow self. Bell begins with Corsicas Pasquale Paoli, an icon of republican virtue whose exploits were once renowned throughout the Atlantic World. Paoli would become a signal influence in both George Washingtons America and Napoleon Bonapartes France. In turn, Bonaparte would exalt Washington even as he fashioned an entirely different form of leadership. In the same period,