The Enlightenment: History of an Idea - Updated Edition - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Vincenzo Ferrone is professor of modern history at the University of Turin. He has been a visiting scholar at the College de France and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

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"Ferrone's compelling and courageous effort to disentangle the conceptions of the Enlightenment advanced by historians and philosophers since the eighteenth century results in a volume indispensable to historians and philosophers alike--and especially all those interested in how the late Enlightenment's 'laboratory of modernity' gave rise to and continues to shape our understanding of humanism today."--Ryan Patrick Hanley, author of Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue

"There will probably never be any agreement over the Enlightenment--whether it was a philosophical project, social movement, or both, and how it changed, if it did, our ways of thinking. But, as Vincenzo Ferrone shows, the struggle to answer these questions has long dominated the intellectual agenda of the West. His book, the first exhaustive account of the idea of Enlightenment itself, is both a history and a critical reflection on how the indisputable origin of the modern world has been conceived, defended, and abused over the centuries. It is both enlightening and enlightened."--Anthony Pagden, author of The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters

"This book shines. A fine and concise work by a highly respected scholar, it puts a lifetime of learning and a pan-European sweep into comparatively few pages, and offers nicely turned set pieces--about the Enlightenment's relationship to the French Revolution, for example--in addition to its original insights and reflections."--Darrin M. McMahon, author of Enemies of the Enlightenment

"Highly recommended."--Choice