{"product_id":"the-end-of-enlightenment-9780241523421","title":"The End of Enlightenment","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A brilliant and revelatory book about the history of ideas'' David Runciman    \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Fascinating and important'' Ruth Scurr  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eThe Enlightenment is popularly seen as the Age of Reason, a key moment in human history when ideals such as freedom, progress, natural rights and constitutional government prevailed. In this radical re-evaluation, historian Richard Whatmore shows why, for many at its centre, the Enlightenment was a profound failure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the early eighteenth century, hope was widespread that Enlightenment could be coupled with toleration, the progress of commerce and the end of the fanatic wars of religion that were destroying Europe. At its heart was the battle to establish and maintain liberty in free states  and the hope that absolute monarchies such as France and free states like Britain might even subsist together, equally respectful of civil liberties. Yet all of this collapsed when states pursued wealth and empire by means of war. Xenoph\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn a study with chilling modern resonance, the history don contends that the age of reason was betrayed by the greed, corruption and barbarism of Britain’s ruling elite\u003c\/b\u003e. . . A nuanced history. . . Enlightenment, for Whatmore and the thinkers he so engagingly profiles, had an objective, namely to overcome superstition that had soaked 17th-century Europe in blood * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eRichard Whatmore serves up \u003cb\u003eeight scintillating portraits of disillusioned thinkers\u003c\/b\u003e who gave up on the hope of a lasting peace... \u003cb\u003ean ambitious exposition of the British thought-world \u003c\/b\u003ein the years bookended by the American and French Revolutions * The Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe End of Enlightenment\u003c\/i\u003e is an \u003cb\u003eilluminating, indeed enlightening\u003c\/b\u003e, exploration of a period that was far more sombre than we may now realise' -- Ritchie Robertson * TLS *\u003cbr\u003eThis book shows brilliantly how an idea, though it may travel across the centuries, can still be historically located, just like the people who invented it. \u003cb\u003e Invigorating. . .\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003ethe Enlightenment in Whatmore’s telling is not a staid, steady procession of pompous ideas, but a vital intellectual exercise in making the best of a bad hand. \u003c\/b\u003eAnd that’s a lesson for the 21st century too * Evening Standard *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHighly intelligent and sensitively written,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe End of Enlightenment\u003c\/i\u003e focuses on post-1750 British and Irish contributors to the movement * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003eWhatmore approaches the Enlightenment on its own terms. . . There is buried treasure in his account of how figures from different intellectual backgrounds negotiated the Enlightenment crisis. . . Whatmore is to be applauded * History Today *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn exhaustive and fascinating read\u003c\/b\u003e on how the Enlightenment came to a grizzly end * Reader's Digest *\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003ebrilliant and revelatory\u003c\/b\u003e book about the history of ideas -- David Runciman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this lucid and beautifully written book, Richard Whatmore evokes the darkening vision of the 18th century thinkers forced to confront the failure of Enlightenment.\u003c\/b\u003e Instead of achieving perpetual peace and progress, they saw Europe fragment into a collection of warmongering states teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and global turmoil. \u003cb\u003eWhatmore carefully reconstructs the historical context for the failure of Enlightenment and presents it as a powerful echo chamber for our own troubled times. This is a fascinating and important book\u003c\/b\u003e -- Ruth Scurr\u003cbr\u003eThe Enlightenment had seemed to promise a limitless bounty of peace, prosperity, rational inquiry and mutual tolerance to a Europe long ravaged by religious fanaticism and war. \u003cb\u003eWhy did it come to end in the extreme violence and continental bloodshed of the French Revolution, and how could another such disaster be avoided?\u003c\/b\u003e Richard Whatmore charts the response to these concerns of many of the greatest thinkers of the 18th century, from Smith and Burke to Wollstonecraft. \u003cb\u003eHis book is panoramic in scope, always fresh and deep in its analysis, but with a polemical edge for today’s readers fearful again for our global future\u003c\/b\u003e -- Jesse Norman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA brilliant work of intellectual interpretation by our foremost historian of Enlightenment ideas\u003c\/b\u003e. Whatmore rescues the Enlightenment from today's circular debates and places it where it belongs: in the pulsing, chaotic era of its genesis and demise -- Christopher de Bellaigue\u003cbr\u003eAs the eighteenth century progressed it was increasingly apparent that the Enlightenment was failing. If religious bigotry was in retreat, new evils advanced: revolution, terror, and greed, fuelling war, exploitation and imperial expansion. \u003cb\u003eRichard Whatmore shows how thinkers from David Hume to Mary Wollstonecraft strove to find solutions to such challenges. This intellectually exhilarating book is particularly relevant today, when liberal democracy is facing new dangers which threaten to drag us back into the darkness once more \u003c\/b\u003e -- Adam Sisman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn accomplished exercise in intellectual history\u003c\/b\u003e -- Alexander Faludy * Catholic Herald *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eExcellent\u003c\/b\u003e... suggests that the Enlightenment ended up devouring those who most believed in it, providing the context for the emergence of Napoleon -- Katherine Bayford * Engelsberg Ideas *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of my favourite books on the British Enlightenment\u003c\/b\u003e... the author \u003cb\u003ecaptures the tenor of 18th century British debates about liberty very well\u003c\/b\u003e... Whatmore writes as if he is actually trying to explain things to you! If you read a lot of history books, you will know that this is oddly rare -- Tyler Cowan\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733166567767,"sku":"9780241523421","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-end-of-enlightenment-9780241523421","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}