Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.
— Walter Cronkite
Journalist – Historian – Speaker
— Walter Cronkite
Welcome to the website of journalist, historian, and speaker David M. Perry. David writes informed commentary and reported features for outlets like CNN, The Nation, and the Washington Post. He has a PhD in history from the University of Minnesota and is currently co-writing The Bright Ages (Harper Collins), a new single-volume history of the Middle Ages. You can connect with David, read his published work, or find out what he's thinking about by reading his blog.
See selected clips of David’s writing … Continue Reading >Writing Samples
Book David to speak about higher education, the medieval past, disability, parenting and work-life balance, and how to find your voice as a public humanist in the 21st century … Continue Reading >Speaking
Here’s how to contact David securely if you have a tip or a question … Continue Reading >Got a Story to Tell?
“An enlightening portrait of the medieval mindset.”Publishers Weekly
“A scholarly and entertaining history of warring brothers.”Kirkus Reviews
“Oathbreakers is historical writing at its finest.”
Chicago Review of Books
Oathbreakers offers lessons of what deep cracks in a once-stable social and political fabric might reveal, and the bloody consequences of disagreeing on facts and reality.
By the early ninth century, the Carolingian empire was at the height of its power. The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since the Rome in its heyday. Though they jockeyed for power, prestige, and profit, the Frankish elites enjoyed political and cultural consensus. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious’s sons tried to overthrow him — and then placed their knives at the other’s neck. Families who had once charged into battle together now drew each other’s blood.
The Carolingian Civil War would rage for years as kings fought kings, brother faced off against brother, and sons challenged fathers. Oathbreakers is the dramatic history of this brutal, turbulent time. David has joined with his co-author, Matthew Gabriele, to illuminate what happens when a once unshakeable political and cultural order breaks down and long suppressed tensions flare into deadly violence. Drawn from rich primary sources, featuring a wide cast of characters, packed with dramatic twists and turns, this is history that rivals the greatest fictional — with consequences that continue to shape our own world.
“What is the role of the scholar and the expert? Temperatures are rising along with the sea levels. Scientists are discovering the keys to reshaping human DNA. The rallying cry of 1930s American Nazis, “America first,” has been resurrected by the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military the world has ever known. The tweet, the video clip, and the lie can spread from our phones, unfiltered and unchecked, to become a global phenomenon within moments of creation. These stories, and these new and emerging means of communication, reflect the need for academic institutions to orient themselves, at least in part, around expanding access to expertise to the largest audience possible.”
“As writers and historians – one Jewish, one Catholic – we both find ourselves able to remember the crackle of burning pages and wonder at the beauty in the chapel. It’s in this duality – the messiness of real people who lived in the past – that we found the bright ages, illuminating our own study of the past.”
I think this is the first time in our writing together that we’ve explicitly said “One Jewish, one Catholic,” and identified ourselves by our faith traditions. It felt right with this chapter, about sacred beauty and sacred violence and the way they came together in the life of King Louis IX. It feels, for me, a bit vulnerable, especially this Sunday after the hostage taking in a Texas synagogue yesterday, but also all the more necessary.