The author, a historian at the University of York, summarizes the Enlightenment in this well-written, brief (280 pages) summary.
The author argues that the Enlightenment emerged at the beginning of the 1700s, in the aftermath of Francis Bacon's development of the scientific method, Isaac Newton's advances in physics, and John Locke's work on human nature. Although difficult to precisely define, the Enlightenment was the intellectual period that covered most of the 18th Century in Europe and rejected traditional religion, folklore, superstition, and traditionalism as modes of knowledge, and in their place emphasized rationality, skepticism, and science.
Although the Enlightenment thinkers initially emphasized the role that a supreme being / god / providence must play in the universe, scientific advancements gradually reduced the need for god as an explanation. Interestingly, the author argues that geology was the scientific discipline that did the most to reduce the intellectual sway of religion, as geology showed that Noah's flood did not occur and the Earth was substantially older than the 6,000 years claimed by Biblical literalists.
However much they may have rejected traditional religion, the Enlightenment thinkers were still products of their era. Although they gradually lost the traditional belief that the world was static, they still held on to ideas of natural harmony. By the end of the 1700s, thinkers such as Rousseau were arguing that existing society had perverted natural harmony, but by looking within individuals could be guided by the natural inclination to what is right, and a just society would uplift and promote the individual's call to follow the universal conscience.
Interestingly, the author argues that the Enlightenment was not a major force in the French Revolution. Instead, the author argues that the increased number of European wars in the second half of the 1700s required monarchs to increase taxes on the aristocracy. This resulted in push back from the aristocrats, who sought to defend their traditional privileges and occasionally used Enlightenment thinkers to buttress their arguments. In France, social tensions exploded in the 1790s, and individuals from across the political spectrum made reference to Enlightenment ideals. However, the author argues that the Enlightenment thinkers were themselves primarily intellectuals, and were not especially focused on politics. Further, the Enlightenment thinkers tended toward a conservative view that existing society was naturally, justly ordered and that intellectualism and free thought belonged to a small upper class, not the masses. That said, the Enlightenment thinkers did view the upper class as consisting of more than just the hereditary nobility, and also capturing merchants and white-collar professionals.
I deduct one star because, while generally well-written, the author's explanations occasionally become muddled and hard to follow.
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