Secular Enlightenment

The Secular Enlightenment is a comprehensive history of how the Enlightenment transformed people's everyday lives, featuring unheard voices and archival materials from London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Turin, and Naples. It shows how secular values and pursuits took hold of eighteenth-century Europe, spilled into the American colonies, and left their lasting imprint on the Western world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 360 pages
Publication date: 20 April 2021
Publisher: Princeton University Press

The Secular Enlightenment is a comprehensive historical account that delves into the profound transformations that occurred in the everyday lives of individuals during the era of Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau. This landmark book presents a panoramic view of the radical shifts that took place, unveiling the ways in which ordinary people's lives were irrevocably altered. In this remarkable work, familiar figures of the Enlightenment are joined by voices that have remained largely unheard until now, encompassing freethinkers, freemasons, French materialists, anticlerical Catholics, pantheists, pornographers, and travelers. Author Margaret Jacob takes readers on a journey from London and Amsterdam to Berlin, Vienna, Turin, and Naples, utilizing rare archival materials to illustrate how ideas central to the emergence of secular democracy permeated every aspect of daily existence. This majestic masterpiece of intellectual and cultural history serves as a testament to how secular values and pursuits gained a firm foothold in eighteenth-century Europe, spread to the American colonies, and left an indelible mark on the Western world for generations to come.

Weight: 472g
Dimension: 139 x 215 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691216768