David Spadafora is a historian of European thought, specializing in the 18th century Enlightenment.
He was the 8th President of the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois, and prior to that a professor at Lake Forest College.
Thereafter, Spadafora returned to Yale, as a residential college dean and lecturer in the history department.
His book, The Idea of Progress in Eighteenth-Century Britain, was published by Yale University Press in 1990,[2] and was included in the Outstanding Academic Books List by Choice, a publication of the Association of college and Research Libraries.
In the fall of 2001, Spadafora received a one-year teaching and research fellowship at the Newberry Library from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM).