“Support[ed] with great passion and wide-ranging scholarship. . . . Himmelfarb has written a keenly argued and thought-provoking intellectual history of the 18th century.” –San Francisco Chronicle “Exciting intellectual pugilism É Himmelfarb mounts a vigorous argument that the British [Enlightenment] was reformist rather than subversive, respectful of the past and present even while looking forward to a more egalitarian future.” –The New York Times Book Review“[Himmelfarb’s] writing . . . has a verve and sharpness. . . . It is a pleasure to read.” –The New York Review of Books“Exceptionally well written and clever.”–The Washington Post Book World“Himmelfarb has one of the keenest intellects of our time.” –The Houston Chronicle
Preface
Prologue
The British Enlightenment: The Sociology of Virtue
1. “Social Affections” and Religious Dispositions
2. Political Economy and Moral Sentiments
3. Edmund Burke’s Enlightenment
4. Radical Dissenters
5. Methodism: “A Social Religion”
6. “The Age of Benevolence”
The French Enlightenment: The Ideology of Reason
The American Enlightenment: The Politics of Liberty
Epilogue
Notes
Index
