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The Roads to Modernity

The British, French, and American Enlightenments

The British, French, and American Enlightenments

By Gertrude Himmelfarb

By Gertrude Himmelfarb

By Gertrude Himmelfarb

By Gertrude Himmelfarb

Best Seller
Paperback $17.00

Aug 09, 2005 | ISBN 9781400077229

Ebook $6.99

Dec 18, 2007 | ISBN 9780307429254

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    The Roads to Modernity by Gertrude Himmelfarb
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    About The Roads to Modernity

    In an elegant, eminently readable work, one of our most distinguished intellectual historians gives us a brilliant revisionist history. The Roads to Modernity reclaims the Enlightenment–an extraordinary time bursting with new ideas about human nature, politics, society, and religion–from historians who have downgraded its importance and from scholars who have given preeminence to the Enlightenment in France over concurrent movements in England and America.

     

    Contrasting the Enlightenments in the three nations, Himmelfarb demonstrates the primacy and wisdom of the British, exemplified in such thinkers as Adam Smith, David Hume, and Edmund Burke, as well as the unique and enduring contributions of the American Founders. It is their Enlightenments, she argues, that created a social ethic–humane, compassionate, and realistic–that still resonates strongly today, in America perhaps even more than in Europe.

     

    The Roads to Modernity is a remarkable and illuminating contribution to the history of ideas.

    About The Roads to Modernity

    In an elegant, eminently readable work, one of our most distinguished intellectual historians gives us a brilliant revisionist history. The Roads to Modernity reclaims the Enlightenment–an extraordinary time bursting with new ideas about human nature, politics, society, and religion–from historians who have downgraded its importance and from scholars who have given preeminence to the Enlightenment in France over concurrent movements in England and America.

     

    Contrasting the Enlightenments in the three nations, Himmelfarb demonstrates the primacy and wisdom of the British, exemplified in such thinkers as Adam Smith, David Hume, and Edmund Burke, as well as the unique and enduring contributions of the American Founders. It is their Enlightenments, she argues, that created a social ethic–humane, compassionate, and realistic–that still resonates strongly today, in America perhaps even more than in Europe.

     

    The Roads to Modernity is a remarkable and illuminating contribution to the history of ideas.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Also by Gertrude Himmelfarb

    One Nation, Two Cultures
    The De-moralization Of Society
    On Looking Into the Abyss
    Poverty and Compassion
    See all books by Gertrude Himmelfarb

    Also by Gertrude Himmelfarb

    One Nation, Two Cultures
    The De-moralization Of Society
    On Looking Into the Abyss
    Poverty and Compassion
    See all books by Gertrude Himmelfarb

    About Gertrude Himmelfarb

    Gertrude Himmelfarb taught for 23 years at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York, where she was named distinguished professor of history in 1978. Now professor emeritus, she lives with her husband, Irving Kristol,… More about Gertrude Himmelfarb

    About Gertrude Himmelfarb

    Gertrude Himmelfarb taught for 23 years at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York, where she was named distinguished professor of history in 1978. Now professor emeritus, she lives with her husband, Irving Kristol,… More about Gertrude Himmelfarb

    Product Details

    Category: European World History | Philosophy | Colonial/Revolutionary Period

    Paperback | $17.00
    Published by Vintage
    Aug 09, 2005 | 304 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9781400077229

    Category: European World History | Philosophy | Colonial/Revolutionary Period

    Ebook | $6.99
    Published by Vintage
    Dec 18, 2007 | 304 Pages | ISBN 9780307429254

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    Praise

    “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

    Table Of Contents

    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

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