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Title: The Creation of the Modern World: The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment by Roy Porter ISBN: 0-393-32268-8 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: November, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A grandiose title, but a great book
Comment: Roy Porter's discussion of the British enlightenment may not be an "untold story," but it is an important story that is often underemphasized in the history of the enlightenment. The essence of Porter's argument is that Britain did, in fact, have an enlightenment as vibrant and relevant as those more studied enlightenments in France and Germany.
In the first half of the book, Porter demonstrates the existence of a British enlightenment through a dense, narrative argument that tracks contemporary discussions in various realms of study, such as religion, science, human nature, and politics. The result is an impressive vision of a new environment of intellectual activity in eighteenth century Britain, as thinkers sought to express "new mental and moral values, new canons of taste, styles of sociability and views of human nature."
Meanwhile, across the Channel the French philosophes reacted against religious intolerance with atheism and against the abuses of absolutism with republicanism. English thinkers of the eighteenth century lacked such divisive issues: religious toleration, at least of a rudimentary sort, was established by 1689, and absolutism had died with Charles I in 1649. As a result, the enlightenment in Britain stressed "the drive not to subvert the system, but to secure it so as to achieve individual satisfaction and collective stability." Thus in Britain the eighteenth century, like so many other centuries, was characterized by a reforming gradualism rather than an oppositional radicalism.
In the second half of the book, Porter examines the results of enlightenment. He argues that the overall condition of women did not worsen during the century and tentatively suggests that it improved, citing observations of foreign visitors who noted the relative freedom of women in Britain. Also, he emphasizes the importance British intellectuals placed on education as a means for improvement, foreshadowing the arguments of such nineteenth century liberals as Mill.
Finally, Porter investigates the effects of the revolutions in America and France on the British enlightenment. The revolt of the American colonies served to radicalize the enlightenment in Britain, as intellectuals suddenly saw their enlightened Britain acting an oppressive role across the Atlantic. The initial stages of the French Revolution furthered this effect, as sympathetic organizations sprouted across Britain. However, the Terror divided British intellectuals: most, including Burke, Coleridge and Malthus turned reactionary, while others such as Byron and Hazlitt remained true to their enlightened principles and mourned current events. However, even the Terror did not terminate the British enlightenment, as many of its ideals quickly reemerged in the form Victorian liberalism.
Highly recommended as a foundational text in British history and/or as comparative book for the study of continental enlightenments. Well written with extensive endnotes and bibliography.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good book and good review
Comment: Usually it's a case of extracting Scottish history from Anglocentric history books, but in the case of the Enlightenment we have the opposite scenario. This book fills a needed void then. This is also a useful book since many of the people mentioned are underrated or their influence misunderstood. Not only that but some of these people were to influence others who came later in their family - Erasmus Darwin, Wollstonecroft (on the Shelleys- her daughter's Frankenstein being a seminal SF work)...
Despite the protestations of the Little Englander from Hong Kong (Michael Wheatley) below, Britain and England are the same thing (3/4 of the time minimum). He should know, after all he reviewed a Cantonese Chinese dictionary as well and there is no separate word for "Britain" in that language, only England and Scotland. In fact the English have been referring to their country alone as "Britain" since at least the 1300s (William Langland) and the first reference to the "British Empire" is in the 1400s.
Rating: 3
Summary: This is not the book that Roy Porter should have written
Comment: This is not the book that Roy Porter should have written. He obviously has a great desire to set the world on its ear and discover great things, which is fine. But the English Enlightenment is not the undiscovered contintent he is looking for. It reminds me of an old saw my professor used to begin his courses with, "Don't worry, I am not here to discover America all over again. That is something that can only be done once, and its been done. "This is not to say that there is not some fine learning in this book. But, "the first history of the forgotten Enlightenment...?" Dismiss the hype and the premise that all other historians are idiots and you have a good study of the English Enlightenment.
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Title: Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750 by Jonathan I. Israel ISBN: 0199254567 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: August, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism by Peter Gay ISBN: 0393313026 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 1995 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Enlightenment: An Interpretation: The Science of Freedom by Peter Gay ISBN: 0393313662 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul by Roy Porter, Simon Schama ISBN: 0393050750 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Enlightenment (Studies in European History (New York, N.Y.).) by Roy Porter ISBN: 0333945050 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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