Democratic Enlightenment : Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750-1790 - Jonathan Israel

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Democratic Enlightenment

Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750-1790

By: Jonathan Israel

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Paperback | 17 January 2013

At a Glance

Paperback
1088 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.3 x 15.5 x 5.9

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That the Enlightenment shaped modernity is uncontested. Yet remarkably few historians or philosophers have attempted to trace the process of ideas from the political and social turmoil of the late eighteenth century to the present day. This is precisely what Jonathan Israel now does.

In Democratic Enlightenment, Israel demonstrates that the Enlightenment was an essentially revolutionary process, driven by philosophical debate. The American Revolution and its concerns certainly acted as a major factor in the intellectual ferment that shaped the wider upheaval that followed, but the radical philosophes were no less critical than enthusiastic about the American model. From 1789, the General Revolution's impetus came from a small group of philosophe-revolutionnaires, men such as Mirabeau, Sieyes, Condorcet, Volney, Roederer, and Brissot. Not aligned to any of the social groups represented in the French National assembly, they nonetheless forged "la philosophie moderne"-in effect Radical Enlightenment ideas-into a world-transforming ideology that had a lasting impact in Latin America, Canada and Eastern Europe as well as France, Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries. In addition, Israel argues that while all French revolutionary journals powerfully affirmed that la
philosophie moderne was the main cause of the French Revolution, the main stream of historical thought has failed to grasp what this implies. Israel sets the record straight, demonstrating the true nature of the engine that drove the Revolution, and the intimate links between the radical wing of the Enlightenment and the anti-Robespierriste "Revolution of reason."

Industry Reviews

`Review from previous edition Israel has turned up evidence of the Radical Enlightenment's influence in surprising places, and that labor alone should ensure that this book finds a place on every specialist's shelf.' New York Times Book Review `a brave and ambitious historian...Israel has found a way of dramatising the debates and attitudes which eventually lay the foundations for something we can call modernity.' BBC History Magazine `Israelâs industry and immense erudition are admirable. He cites or refers to thousands of original sources in many languages and stemming from various cultural heritages, many of them hitherto unknown to or seldom used by scholars of the Enlightenment.' Joseph Mali, The European Legacy

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