Gary Kates - The Books that Made the European Enlightenment: A History in 12 Case Studies

The Books That Made the European Enlightenment

Cultures of Early Modern Europe

Series Editors: Beat Kmin, Professor of Early Modern European History, University of Warwick, UK, and Brian Cowan, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Early Modern British History, McGill University, Canada

Editorial Board: Adam Fox, University of Edinburgh, UK

Robert Frost, University of Aberdeen, UK

Molly Greene, University of Princeton, USA

Ben Schmidt, University of Washington, USA

Gerd Schwerhoff, University of Dresden, Germany

Francsesca Trivellato, University of Yale, USA

Francisca Loetz, University of Zurich, Switzerland

The cultural turn in the humanities has generated a wealth of new research topics and approaches. Focusing on the ways in which representations, perceptions, and negotiations shaped peoples lived experiences, the books in this series provide fascinating insights into the past. The series covers early modern culture in its broadest sense, inclusive of (but not restricted to) themes such as gender, identity, communities, mentalities, emotions, communication, ritual, space, food and drink, and material culture.

Published:

Food and Identity in England, 1540-1640, Paul S. Lloyd

The Birth of the English Kitchen, 1600-1850, Sara Pennell

Vagrancy in English Culture and Society, 1650-1750, David Hitchcock

Angelicas Book and the World of Reading in Late Renaissance Italy, Brendan Dooley

Gender, Culture and Politics in England, 1560-1640, Susan D. Amussen and David E. Underdown

Food, Religion, and Communities in Early Modern Europe, Christopher Kissane

Religion and Society at the Dawn of Modern Europe, Rudolf Schlgl

Power and Ceremony in European History: Rituals, Practices and Representative Bodies since the Late Middle Ages, Anna Kalinowska and Jonathan Spangler (eds.) with Pawel Tyszka

Private/Public in 18th-Century Scandinavia, Sari Nauman and Helle Vogt (eds.)

Catherine the Great and Celebrity Culture in the Eighteenth Century, Ruth Pritchard Dawson

The Books That Made the European Enlightenment: A History in 12 Case Studies, Gary Kates

The Books That Made the European Enlightenment

A History in 12 Case Studies

Gary Kates

Historians are obligated first and foremost to librarians, and those at the Honnold Library of the Claremont Colleges have guided and helped me, especially during these Covid years, when print collections were shut down and sharing books among libraries became especially difficult. The dogged dedication of the Honnold library staff is one key reason why you are able to read this book.

This books origins lay in the dialog Ive sustained with students in my annual fall first-year seminar on the Enlightenment, as well as in my upper-level class, Enlightenment and Capitalism. My debt is infinite to those students at Pomona College willing to engage in close reading of eighteenth-century texts. Brett Reilly is one student who made several important interventions that improved both the gist of the argument and the texts readability.

Jack Censer was there at the start of this project and I am eternally grateful for his support. Later, he read every page, making comments on paper and phone. Dena Goodman not only read every word of the manuscript, but her critical comments often caused me much rewriting, and while she is not responsible for the books faults, her mark is apparent everywhere.

Early on, a lunch with Keith Baker proved instrumental. Another lunch with Nina Gelbart, who later read parts of the manuscript, was critically important to the way the book turned out. Charly Coleman helped me revise my understanding of the role Fnelon played in the Enlightenment. I appreciate his invitation to workshop the Fnelon chapter at a gathering of colleagues at Columbia University. Im grateful to J. B. Shank for inviting me to speak to graduate students at the University of Minnesota about parts of the book and the database upon which it is based. Without Eileen Hunt Bottings critical help, I would not have been able to appreciate Louise Dupins reading of Montesquieu.

My Pomona colleague Helena Wall read every page of the manuscript and her comments improved it immensely. Im also grateful to Simon Burrows and Ken Loiselle for their careful reading of the manuscript.

Judith Lipsett has edited my books since the early 1980s and remains an ideal critic and reader.

Claremont California
March 9, 2022

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