The Secular Enlightenment - by Margaret Jacob (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A major history of how the Enlightenment transformed people's everyday lives

The Secular Enlightenment is a panoramic account of the radical ways life began to change for ordinary people in the age of Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau. In this landmark book, familiar Enlightenment figures share places with voices that have remained largely unheard until now, from freethinkers and freemasons to French materialists, anticlerical Catholics, pantheists, pornographers, and travelers. Margaret Jacob takes readers from London and Amsterdam to Berlin, Vienna, Turin, and Naples, drawing on rare archival materials to show how ideas central to the emergence of secular democracy touched all facets of daily life. A majestic work of intellectual and cultural history, The Secular Enlightenment demonstrates 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 for generations to come.

Review Quotes

"Margaret Jacob is an excellent narrator of this period of human history. Her knowledge of these times is eloquently conveyed. . . .This publication will, without doubt, become a fixture on the shelf of any person interested in the Enlightenment."---Wessel Bentley, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"

About the Author

Margaret C. Jacob is Distinguished Professor of Research at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her many books include The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons, and Republicans and The First Knowledge Economy: Human Capital and the European Economy, 1750-1850.