Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. ix, 1,070 pages; 25 cm

Summary

1. "The Enlightenment that Failed explores the growing rift between those Enlightenment trends and initiatives that appealed exclusively to elites and those aspiring to enlighten all of society by raising mankind's awareness, freedoms, and educational level generally. Jonathan I. Israel explains why the democratic and radical secularizing tendency of the Western Enlightenment, after gaining some notable successes during the revolutionary era (1775-1820) in numerous countries, especially in Europe, North America, and Spanish America, ultimately failed. He argues that a populist, Robespierriste tendency, sharply at odds with democratic values and freedom of expression, gained an ideological advantage in France, and that the negative reaction this generally provoked caused a more general anti-Enlightenment reaction, a surging anti-intellectualism combined with forms of religious revival that largely undermined the longings of the deprived, underprivileged, and disadvantaged, and ended by helping, albeit often unwittingly, conservative anti-Enlightenment ideologies to dominate the scene. The Enlightenment that Failed relates both the American and the French revolutions to the Enlightenment in a markedly different fashion from how this is usually done, showing how both great revolutions were fundamentally split between bitterly opposed and utterly incompatible ideological tendencies. Radical Enlightenment, which had been an effective ideological challenge to the prevailing monarchical-aristocratic status quo, was weakened, then almost entirely derailed and displaced0from the Western consciousness, in the 1830s and 1840s by the rise of Marxism and other forms of socialism." --

Subject

1. Europe
2. Europe > Intellectual life > 18th century
3. 1700-1799
4. Enlightenment
5. Intellectual life
6. Civilization, Modern > 18th century

Contents

1. 1. Introduction: Radical enlightenment and "modernity" (1650-1850). Basic argument and scope ; Definitions and categories ; The end of the Enlightenment? ; The concept "Radical Enlightenment" -- Part I. The origins of democratic modernity -- 2. The rise of democratic republicanism. England and the "Dutch Way" (1688-1720) ; A notable public controversy (1706-1710) ; Spinoza Reviv'd and the cercle spinoziste ; Dutch democratic republicanism (1650-1700) ; Revising the "Pocock thesis" on Republicanism -- 3 From radical Renaissance to radical Enlightenment. Rediscovering Lucretius ; Epicureanism versus Spinozism ; Methods of subversion -- 4. From radical Reformation to the cercle spinoziste. Socinus and the Socinian revolt ; Grotius and the radical Enlightenment ; Polish brethre, Moravian brethren, rescuing Anti-Trinitarian theology ; Fusing radical Reformation with radical Enlightenment -- 5. English "Deism" and its pre-1700 roots. Rival "Deist" identities (1700-1740) ; Conservative "Deism": Wollaston, Morgan, and Chubb ; Shaftesbury's radicalism ; Toland revisited -- 6. Great "Moderates" and the temptations of the radical: Montesquieu and the forbidden -- 7. D'Holbach against Voltaire and Rousseau: A triangular war of political thought systems. Our "Vale of Tears" ; Rejecting Rousseau's "Equality" ; Contesting Voltaire's court "Aristocratism" ; Improving society includes economic redistribution ; Rightly and wrongly interpreting d'Holbach -- 8. Revolution without violence: The Nordic model. Enlightened reform in Sweden-Finland ; Enlightened reform in Denmark-Norway ; Scandinavian enlightened despotism after 1772 ; Scandinavia's gradual revolution (1784-1820) -- Part II. Human rights and revolution (1770-1830) -- 9. Parallel revolutions: America and France (1774-1793). Breakthrough to "modernity": The twin American and French revolutions down to June 1793 ; "Democratical principles" versus Aristocratic Republicanism ; Mobilizing the masses; Forging constitutions -- 10. "General will" and the invention of universal and equal human rights (1750-1789). "General Will" and the rise of equal rights ; Why the "Cultural" explanation of the invention of human rights is wrong ; The "Sixth Bureau" against universal human rights -- 11 Emancipating women: Marriage, equality, and female citizenship (1775-1815). Gender segregation and repression ; Radical thought and the origins of modern feminism ; Enlightenment and girls' education ; Revolution and divorce ; Montagnard, Napoleonic, and Post-Napoleonic reaction -- 12. From classical economics to post-classical redistributive economics (1775-1820). Beginnings (1748-1776) ; Economics and the "Grain war" ; Economics and and the issue of poverty -- 13 Reforming Europe's law codes. Social structure, culture, and the law ; Law, popular culture, and religious policing ; The "Law reform" controversy of the 1760s and 1770s -- 14. Unity of humanity: Race theory and the equality of peoples. Enlightenment and the advent of race theories ; Kant in controversy with Herder and Forster over race -- 15. Unity of humanity: Property, class, and the emancipation of man. Scottish Enlightenment and the "Science of Man" ; Social science and differentiating the two Enlightenments --
2. Part III. Revolution and competing Revolutionary ideologies (1789-1830) -- 16. Robespierre anti-philosophe: The battle of ideologies during the French Revolution. the Rousseauist rots of Robespierre's anti-philosophique discourse ; Robespierre, Rousseau, and the cult of the ordinary ; Robespierre and the historiography of the revolution: Revisiting the "Marxist interpretation" -- 17. Swiss revolution: The climb to democratic republicanism (1782-1830). Switzerland: "Aristocratic" versus "Democratic" republicanism ; The Swiss revolutions of the 1790s ; Napoleon's reconstitution of Switzerland (1802-1814) ; Toward democratic republicanism -- 18. The Belgian revolution (1787-1794). An "Advanced society" engineers a "backward revolution" ; Radical concepts used for conservative ends ; The Vonckiste revolution overwhelmed -- 19. Enlightening against Robespierre (and Napoleon): The écoles centrales (1792-1804). Condorcet and the radical enlightenment's culminating project ; Inaugurating the écoles centrales ; Enlightenment in secondary school curricula ; Napoleon reorganizes French secondary and higher education -- 20. Revolution and the universities: Germany's "Philosophy Wars" (1780-1820). Enlightenment, reform, and transforming the universities ; The politicization of German philosophy ; The Atheismusstreit (1798-1799) ; A new vision of the university -- 21. Radicalism and repression in the Anglo-American world (1775-1815). The radical tendency ; Unitarian radical enlightenment ; The American Revolution in British thought ; Expelling Britain's radicals (1792-1802) ; Tom Paine and the rise of the American Radical Intelligentsia -- 22. The American connection. New York Radicalism ; New York and Philadelphia radicalism revived (1792-1806) -- 23. The Spanish Revolution (1808-1823). Josephism versus radical thought ; The Cádiz Cortes and 1812 Constitution ; Reaction (1814-1820) ; The Failed Revolution of 1820-1823 -- 24. Black emancipation, universal emancipation, and the Haitian revolution (1775-1825). Enlightenment, radical enlightenment, and Black Emancipation ; Toussaint Louverture's Black Revolution ; Haitian independence ; "King Henry Christophe" and the thwarting of black monarchy -- Part IV. The Enlightenment that failed -- 25. Reaction and radicalism: Germany and the low countries (1814-1830) ; Restoration thwarted ; "Enlightened Despotism" revived: The United Netherlands (1814-1830) ; Bavaria and Württemberg as Late Enlightenment states -- 26. British philosophical radicalism (1814-1830). A new beginning: Bentham and the gentler path ; Benthamite radicalism as a post-1815 British and International ideology -- 27. Failed Restoration in France (1814-1830). Louis XVIII and the "Hundred Days" ; Enlightenment barriers to a genuine restoration ; Political ideology and the Revolutionary tradition ; A late Enlightenment machine de guerre: The Revue encyclopédique -- 28. Bolívar and Spinoza. Enlightenment applied to Revolutionary politics ; Philosophy of a military genius ; Triumph and failure in Spanish America -- 29. Marx and the Left's turn from radical Enlightenment to Socialism (1838-1848) -- 30 Conclusion: The "Radical Enlightenment Thesis" and its critics.

Call number

1. JFE 20-3123

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 943-1032) and index.

Author

1. Israel, Jonathan, 1946- author.

Title

1. The Enlightenment that failed : ideas, revolution, and democratic defeat, 1748-1830 / Jonathan I. Israel.

Publisher

1. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Edition

1. First edition.

Type of content

1. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Creator/contributor characteristics

1. Occupation/field of activity group: University and college faculty members
2. Social group: Retirees
3. Gender group: Men

Bibliography

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 943-1032) and index.

Chronological term

1. 1700-1799

ISBN

1. 9780198738404 hardcover
2. 0198738404 hardcover
3. 9780191058240 electronic book

Research call number

1. JFE 20-3123