For this episode, I sat down with Professor David Avrom Bell to discuss Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions.
In each episode, I talk with one of the world’s leading scholars about one book that changed the course of history. Zachary Davis: Welcome to Writ Large, a podcast about how books change the world. Zachary Davis: Rousseau pioneered new ways of thinking about education, politics, and the human personality that still resonate in modern society.ĭavid Bell: So, this notion of the corrupting effects of society, as we understand society, the notion of the effect of childhood experience on the formation of adult personality, the influence of personality upon, upon the written word and upon writing-I think these are all enormously powerful examples of the way that Rousseau influences people. I'm a specialist in French history, particularly the history of the 18th century, the early 19th century, which is to say the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and Napoleon. I'm a professor of history at Princeton University. The book just, you know, invented so much of, of the modern, of the modern mindset, if you want to call it that. This autobiography was called Confessions.ĭavid Bell: It's such a, a book that seems to be at the, at the starting point for so much of modern culture, for so much of, not just of modern culture, but of the way we, we think today in Western societies. In his later years, he wrote a detailed account of his life to help explain how his own experiences shaped his personality, views, neuroses, and imperfections. Rousseau believed that society has an enormous influence on human development and behavior.
He was a philosopher, writer, and music composer in the 18th century. Zachary Davis: Jean-Jacques Rousseau led an interesting life.
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