Description
Book SynopsisThe Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden traces the life and ideas of this fascinating and controversial "gentleman-scholar." John M. Dixon's lively and accessible account explores the overlapping ideological, social, and political worlds of this earliest of New York intellectuals.
Trade ReviewDixon urges readers to revisit colonial culture and thought and to take them on their own terms rather than as simple precursors to the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. Cadwallader Colden, Dixon argues, deserves to be recognized and studied because he 'was an important champion of colonial intellect who helped to define the social and ideological contours of moderate, transatlantic enlightenment' (p. 167). Dixon is absolutely correct and this book is a call for scholars to conduct more research on Colden and his transatlantic world. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the history of science, empire, British North America and intellectual history.
-- Evan Rothera * British Journal for the History of Science *
A welcome addition to scholarship on intellectual life in the eighteenth-century British Empire. Historians of science, early America, and the Atlantic will find that it raises a number of questions about a curious and neglected figure, and about the intersections of enlightenment and imperialism.
* American Historical Review *
A wonderful portrait of the nature of a colonial American society.... Dixon has provided us with a book that is as much about the nature of the eighteenth-century British Empire as about the history of science.
* Isis *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
PART I. BEGINNINGS
1. Enlightened Age
2. Pursuit of Gentility
3. Intellectuals
PART II. ACTIVE MATTERS
4. Knowledge of Empires
5. Otium
6. Philosophical Actions
PART III. POLITICS
7. Against Partisanship
8. Colden's Ordeal
