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Robert Zaretsky is a professor with a joint appointment in the Honors College and the Department of Modern and Classical Languages in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston. He teaches a variety of courses ranging from the histories of existentialism and terrorism to the histories of Paris and Berlin. Zaretsky earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from McGill University, a master’s degree in history from the University of Vermont, and a doctorate in history from the University of Virginia.
He is the author of several books, including Nîmes at War: Religion, Politics, and Public Opinion in the Gard, 1938-1944 (Penn State University Press, 1995), Cock and Bull Stories: Folco de Baroncelli and the Invention of the Camargue (University of Nebraska Press, 2004), Albert Camus: Elements of a Life (Cornell University Press, 2010), A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning (Harvard University Press, 2013), Boswell’s Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2015), Catherine & Diderot: The Empress, the Philosopher and the Fate of the Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2019), The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas (University of Chicago Press, 2021), and Victories Never Last: Reading and Caregiving in a Time of Plague (University of Chicago Press, 2022). He is co-author of The Philosophers’ Quarrel: Rousseau, Hume, and the Limits of Human Understanding (Yale University Press, 2009) and France and Its Empire Since 1870 (Oxford University Press, 2010). His forthcoming book Chasing Happiness: Stendhal and the Art of Living is scheduled for publication by the University of Chicago Press in 2027. Zaretsky is a frequent contributor to publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Houston Chronicle, Foreign Affairs, and Chronicle of Higher Education, and he serves as a columnist for the Jewish Forward. He previously served as history editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Explore the University of Houston indoctrination controversy, triggered by Texas SB 37, where faculty memos and checklists spark debates on academic freedom and political bias in classrooms.
Explore the University of Houston's anti-indoctrination measures amid Texas SB 37, GOP concerns, and faculty pushback on academic freedom.
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