The  roads to modernity
Subtitle: the British, French, and American enlightenments
By: Gertrude Himmelfarb.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Knopf; Distributed by Random House
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9781400042364
Subjects: Enlightenment -- Great Britain.; Enlightenment -- France.; Enlightenment -- United States.; Intellectual life -- History.; Philosophy, Modern -- 18th century.; Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 18th century.; France -- Intellectual life -- 18th century.; United States -- Intellectual life -- 18th century.
Description: "The Roads to Modernity reclaims the Enlightenment - an extraordinary time bursting with new ideas about the human condition in the realms of politics, society, and religion - from historians who have downgraded its importance and from scholars who have given preeminence to the Enlightenment in France over concurrent movements in England and America. Contrasting the Enlightenments in the three nations, Gertrude Himmelfarb demonstrates the primacy of the British and the wisdom and foresight of thinkers such as Adam Smith, David Hume, Thomas Paine, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Edward Gibbon, and Edmund Burke, who established its unique character and historic importance. It is this Enlightenment, she argues, that created a moral and social philosophy - humane, compassionate, and realistic - that still resonates strongly today, in America perhaps ever more so than in Europe." "This is a contribution to the history of ideas."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-276) and index.