Product Description

Armed with the insights of the scientific revolution, the men of the Enlightenment set out to free mankind from its age-old cocoon of pessimism and superstition and establish a more reasonable world of experiment and progress. Yet by the 1760s, this optimism about man and society had almost evaporated. In the works of Rousseau, Kant and Goethe, there was discernible a new inner voice, and an awareness of individual uniqueness which had eluded their more self-confident predecessors. The stage was set for the revolutionary crisis and the rise of Romanticism. In this book, Norman Hampson follows through certain dominant themes in the Enlightenment, and describes the contemporary social and political climate, in which ideas could travel from the salons of Paris to the court of Catherine the Great - but less easily from a master to his servant. On such vexed issues as the role of ideas in the "rise of the middle class" he provides a new and realistic approach linking intellectual and social history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83343 in Books
• Published on: 1990-06-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
Norman Hampson was Professor of History at the University of York.

Customer Reviews

Enlightening (sic)
I picked up this book as someone in search of a broad introduction to the Enlightenment rather than as an expert and it served that purpose very well. Lucidly written it outlines the chronology, the themes and the characters which together made the 18th century so significant.

Hampson is an entertaining as well as educative writer and, it would seem to me at least, chose to give more time to individuals that he found interesting than their contribution might strictly have made appropriate. I especially liked his inclusion of the bloodthirsty De Maistre, who he describes as having a religion 'more Aztec than Christian'.

I dare say that there have been more recent overviews of the Enlightement written, but this is definitely worth reading. Apart from its scholarly merit some of the author's insights are uncannily prescient - don't forget they were made in the 1960s - and all the more fascinating for that.

An outstanding read and thoroughly informative
I originally purchased this book in 1984 and have never parted with it. I purchased it off the back of an Open University programme on Bath (presented by top academic, Colin Cunningham) for what became the A204 course on The Enlightenment (Now A207). Rousseau, Kant and Goethe are all here. Mr Hampson is a scholar of exceptional writing and in doing so passes on the font of all knowledge in this volume. Primarily, this book draws together the key philosophical (and scientific) debates and nuances from the period 1760 to 1830. This is the age of the arts (with Roman and Greek Antiquities laid down as the highest standard in all art) and of course, the characters that shaped this period's creativity. This is the age of Rousseau, Reynolds, Herschel, Kant, Goethe, Mozart, et al. This is the age of the Grand Tour and appreciation. It is pre-modernity and modernism but there again it is the industrial and social revolution of Europe. The leaders such as Frederick The Great. This book is a superb signpost to other works on the subject.