The End of Enlightenment

In a study with chilling modern resonance, the history don contends that the age of reason was betrayed by the greed, corruption and barbarism of Britain’s ruling elite… A nuanced history… Enlightenment, for Whatmore and the thinkers he so engagingly profiles, had an objective, namely to overcome superstition that had soaked 17th-century Europe in blood * Observer *
Richard Whatmore serves up eight scintillating portraits of disillusioned thinkers who gave up on the hope of a lasting peace… an ambitious exposition of the British thought-world in the years bookended by the American and French Revolutions * The Times *
The End of Enlightenment is an illuminating, indeed enlightening, exploration of a period that was far more sombre than we may now realise’ – Ritchie Robertson * TLS *
This book shows brilliantly how an idea, though it may travel across the centuries, can still be historically located, just like the people who invented it. Invigorating… the Enlightenment in Whatmore’s telling is not a staid, steady procession of pompous ideas, but a vital intellectual exercise in making the best of a bad hand. And that’s a lesson for the 21st century too * Evening Standard *
Highly intelligent and sensitively written, The End of Enlightenment focuses on post-1750 British and Irish contributors to the movement * Financial Times *
Whatmore approaches the Enlightenment on its own terms… There is buried treasure in his account of how figures from different intellectual backgrounds negotiated the Enlightenment crisis… Whatmore is to be applauded * History Today *
Richard Whatmore aims to alter our image of the 18th-century Enlightenment by showing how its heroes anticipated their own failure… A consistent strength of this book is his readiness to capture his subjects in contrary moods… instructive * Literary Review *
An exhaustive and fascinating read on how the Enlightenment came to a grizzly end * Reader’s Digest *
A brilliant and revelatory book about the history of ideas – David Runciman
In this lucid and beautifully written book, Richard Whatmore evokes the darkening vision of the 18th century thinkers forced to confront the failure of Enlightenment. Instead of achieving perpetual peace and progress, they saw Europe fragment into a collection of warmongering states teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and global turmoil. Whatmore carefully reconstructs the historical context for the failure of Enlightenment and presents it as a powerful echo chamber for our own troubled times. This is a fascinating and important book – Ruth Scurr

Richard Whatmore is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Co-Director of the Institute of Intellectual History. He is the author of several acclaimed contributions to intellectual history and eighteenth-century scholarship, including The History of Political Thought, Terrorists, Anarchists and Republicans and Against War and Empire.

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