Anthony Pagden - The Pursuit of Europe - A History

Book of the Week.

The Sunday Telegraph

Learned eloquent and at times passionate.

Keith Thomas, New York Review of Books

Both Pagdens retelling of the Enlightenment story, and his defence of cosmopolitanism, are cogent and important.

The Independent

The grand architecture of [Pagdens] argument is finely ornamented with nuance and qualification.

Colin Kidd, London Review of Books

Pagden writes beautifully and has a wonderful eye for apt quotations, many of which eloquently capture the spirit of the Enlightenment literati.

History Today

The Enlightenment is a spirited and engaging polemic directed against the recourse to fundamentalism in modern history.

Richard Bourke, Literary Review

With religion resurgent across the worldcomplaining of oppression at every turnthe Enlightenment project, never completed, is at risk again. As this eloquent and thrilling book makes clear, its enemies might care to explain why it happened in the first place.

Ian Bell, The Glasgow Herald

Written with exemplary clarity, [this book] exposes the classical roots of the critical attack on religious traditions, and explores new discourses around a scientific study of humanity While Pagden pauses to consider the dark side of Enlightenment ideas, the power of the book lies in its lucid exposition of optimistic thinking, from Condorcets conceptual history to Humes brutal attack on organised religion as sick mens dreams. If one wanted a handbook of optimism, Pagdens work would be a set text.

BBC History Magazine

A sensationally good piece of cultural and intellectual history reminds us how the Western view of the world came into existence and why its worth defending. It does still matter.

Oxford Today

The Enlightenment really does still matter, and with a combination of gripping storytelling about colourful characters and lucid explanation of profound ideas, Anthony Pagden shows why.

Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and The Blank Slate

Reading Anthony Pagdens The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters is an enlightenment in itself. The larger-than-life thinkers and talkers of eighteenth-century Europe have been blamed for everything from taking the magic out of life to making Auschwitz possible, but here, in sparkling style, Pagden shows us not only how their ideas made mankind modern but also what our world might have been like without them. Everyone interested in where the West came from should read this book.

Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules-For Now

Anthony Pagden defends the Enlightenment as a cosmopolitan project with classical roots and contemporary relevance. Like Kant, he argues that we live in an age of enlightenment, ongoing but incomplete, but that someday we will experience a fully enlightened age. His lucid and learned book might help to realize that hope.

David Armitage, author of Foundations of Modern International Thought

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021942152

ISBN 9780198757665

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