Dallas G. Denery II

Affiliation: History
Professor of History and Associate Dean for Curriculum

Teaching and Research Interests

Dallas G. Denery II is an intellectual and religious historian, with a particular interest in medieval and early modern European history. His most recent book, The Devil Wins: A History of Lying from the Garden of Eden to the Enlightenment, appeared on Princeton University Press in 2015. Since then, he has become increasingly interested in metahistorical questions, such as, “Why do we care about the past?” and “What is history for?” He is currently working on a new book, Bad History!, which considers what egregiously bad histories can teach us about the nature and purpose of history. Among other examples, he considers the early Enlightenment Jesuit conspiracist Jean Hardouin, as well as more recent bad histories such as Erich von Däniken’s ancient astronaut thesis and contemporary Young Earth Creationism.

The Devil Wins book cover

The Devil Wins: A History of Lying from the Garden of Eden to the Enlightenment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015)

Seeing and Being Seen book cover

Seeing and Being Seen in the Late Medieval World: Optics, Theology and Religious Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, paperback 2009).

 

Curriculum Vitae

Dallas Denery Headshot

Education

  • PhD, University of California, Berkeley, History, 1999.
  • MA, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Philosophy, 1995.
  • BA, University of California, Berkeley, Philosophy, 1986.