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

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

Curriculum Vitae

Denery, Dallas. “Lying.” In Speculum 93:1 (January, 2018), 72-77.

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

Uncertain Knowledge in the Middle Ages. Dallas G. Denery II, Kantik Ghosh and Nicolette Zeeman, eds., forthcoming (Brepols).

“Uncertainty and Deception in the Medieval and Early Modern Court.” In Uncertain Knowledge in the Middle Ages, Dallas G. Denery II, Kantik Ghosh and Nicolette Zeeman, eds., forthcoming (Brepols).

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

"Christine de Pizan on Misogyny, Gossip and Possibility." In Jason Glenn, ed., The Middle Ages in Texts and Texture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), forthcoming.

"Protagoras and the Fourteenth-Century Invention of Epistemological Relativism." In Lisa Bitel, ed., Visualizing the Invisible: Visionary Techniques in Religious and Cultural Contexts, a special issue of Visual Resources XXV, nos. 1-2, March/June 2009: 29-51.

"Christine de Pizan Against the Theologians: The Virtue of Lies in The Book of Three Virtues." Viator 39:1 (2008): 229-47.

“The Preacher and His Audience: Dominican Conceptions of the Self in the Thirteenth Century.” In Laurie Postlewaite and Wim Huskens, eds., Public Performance/Public Ritual (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007):17-34.

"Biblical Liars and Thirteenth-Century Theologians." In Richard Newhauser, ed., The Seven Deadly Sins: From Individuals to Communities (Leiden: Brill, 2007): 111-28.

“Nicholas of Autrecourt on Saving the Appearances.” In Stephan Caroti and Christophe Grellard, eds., Nicolas d'Autrécourt et la Faculté des arts de Paris (1317-1340) (Cesena: Stilgraf, 2006): 65-84.

"From Sacred Mystery to Divine Deception: Robert Holkot, John Wyclif and the Transformation of Fourteenth-Century Eucharistic Discourse," Journal of Religious History, June 2005:129-44.
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"The Appearance of Reality: Peter Aureol and the Experience of Perceptual Error." Franciscan Studies, 55 (1998).

Education

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

History

Dallas G. Denery II

Teaching and Research Interests

Selected Publications

Education