The Books That Made the European Enlightenment
A History in 12 Case Studies
Bloomsbury Academic · Print & ebook · September 8, 2022
In contrast to traditional Enlightenment studies that focus solely on authors and ideas, Gary Kates' employs a literary lens to offer a wholly original history of the period in Europe from 1699 to 1780.
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- Who it’s for
- Book biographies trace Enlightenment texts through publication, reception, and revolutionary change.
- Genres
- 18th-Century History, 18th Century Literature, Historiography
- Published
- Bloomsbury Academic, September 8, 2022
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
Enlightenment at CourtThomas Biskup, Benjamin Marschke62% matchShares 18th-Century History and 18th Century Literature
The Seventeenth CenturyJoseph Bergin59% match
Early Modern EnglandJ Sharpe, James Sharpe59% match
Queer EnlightenmentsDr. Anthony Delaney, Anthony Delaney58% matchShares 18th-Century History
The Age of Revolutions in Global Context, C. 1760-1840David Armitage, Sanjay Subrahmanyam57% matchShares 18th-Century History
Europe 1600-1789Anthony F. Upton57% matchShares 18th-Century History
RevolutionEnzo Traverso56% match
Europe in the Sixteenth CenturyH.G. Koenigsberger, George L. Mosse56% match
For younger readers: The Awakening of Europe, Imperialism, Big Lies
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Start with this bookAbout this book
In contrast to traditional Enlightenment studies that focus solely on authors and ideas, Gary Kates' employs a literary lens to offer a wholly original history of the period in Europe from 1699 to 1780. Each chapter is a biography of a book which tells the story of the text from its inception through to the revolutionary era, with wider aspects of the Enlightenment era being revealed through the narrative of the book's publication and reception.
Continue reading
Here, Kates joins new approaches to book history with more traditional intellectual history by treating authors, publishers, and readers in a balanced fashion throughout. Using a unique database of 18th-century editions representing 5,000 titles, the book looks at the multifaceted significance of bestsellers from the time. It analyses key works by Voltaire, Adam Smith, Madame de Graffigny, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume and champions the importance of a crucial innovation of the age: the rise of the 'erudite blockbuster', which for the first time in European history, helped to popularize political theory among a large portion of the middling classes. Kates also highlights how, when, and why some of these books were read in the European colonies, as well as incorporating the responses of both ordinary men and women as part of the reception histories that are so integral to the volume.
Books in Circulation
Book biographies trace Enlightenment texts through publication, reception, and revolutionary change.
Come here for
- Book-by-book histories of publication and reception
- Works by Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Madame de Graffigny
Expect
- Authors, publishers, and readers considered together
- Colonial reading and responses from ordinary men and women
Where it sits
| 18th-Century History | 97% |
|---|---|
| 18th Century Literature | 39% |
| Historiography | 26% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- History
- Creative Writing
- Authors
- Gary Kates, Beat Kümin, Brian Cowan
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Academic
- Published
- September 8, 2022
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- History