Product Description

Debate over the meaning of ‘Enlightenment’ began in the eighteenth century and has continued unabated until our own times. This period saw the opening of arguments on the nature of man, truth, on the place of God, and the international circulation of ideas, people and gold. Did the Enlightenment mean the same for men and women, for rich and poor, for Europeans and non-Europeans? In the second edition of her book, Dorinda Outram addresses these, and other questions about the Enlightenment. She studies it as a global phenomenon, setting the period against broader social changes. This new edition offers a fresh introduction, a new chapter on slavery, and new material on the Enlightenment as a global phenomenon. The bibliography and short biographies have been extended. This accessible synthesis of scholarship will prove invaluable reading to students of eighteenth-century history, philosophy, and the history of ideas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92445 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 182 pages

Review
‘… this is a wide-ranging and useful survey of the field.’ Norman Hampson, Modern and Contemporary France

About the Author
Dorinda Outram is Professor of History at the University of Rochester. Her previous publications include Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: Women in Science, 1789–1979 (1987) and The Body and the French Revolution: Sex Class and Political Culture (1989).

Customer Reviews

Clear, concise, comprehensive
For anyone with an interest in Enlightenment, this provides a thorough and ambitious guide to one of the most important intellectual movements of the modern world. This work includes a useful introduction with the title "What is Enlightenment," outlining the complexities that accompany such words and their definitions. To the casual reader or the student of Enlightenment, the clarity with which Outram presents the issues, and, as far as possible, the facts, you would be hard pushed to find any where else. The content is understandably lacking a little, given the scope and period that this works attempts to cover. A more extensive study perhaps is Roy Porter on the Enlightenment. However, in addition to the introduction and genrerally sound reasoning of the main part of this work, it also includes a helpful if breif section on "Suggestions for Further Reading."