The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and America Realized the Enlightenment PDF
Preview The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and America Realized the Enlightenment
The Empire of Reason takes a sweep ing look at the origins of the En lightenment and its consequences in America. While new ideas flourished on the Continent during the eighteenth century, “ideas” they remained. Not until strains of this intellectual thought filtered to the colonies were they adopted in practice. In a lively narra tive, historian Henry Steele Commager links European philosophes Banks, Voltaire, Struensee, Diderot, Gustavus III, and Buflbn with their American counterparts Jefferson, Franklin, Rit- tenhouse, and Priestley. He show's that the American Enlightenment wfas not simply derivative ofits European ances try and boldly outlines the thrusts of its development in such documents as The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. (continued on back flap * The Empire of Reason OTHER BOOKS BY HENRY COMMAGER THE AMERICAN MIND THE BLUE AND THE GRAY, 2 VOlS. THE SPIRIT OF SEVENTY-SIX (with r. b. morris) 2 vols. FREEDOM, LOYALTY AND DISSENT THE NATURE AND STUDY OF HISTORY FREEDOM AND ORDER THE COMMONWEALTH OF LEARNING THE DEFEAT OF AMERICA THE SEARCH FOR RACIAL EQUALITY THEODORE PARKER: A BIOGRAPHY THE GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC (with s. e. morison) 2 vols. BRITAIN THROUGH AMERICAN EYES AMERICA IN PERSPECTIVE JEFFERSON, NATIONALISM AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT DOCUMENTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY Henry Steele Commager The Empire of Reason How Europe Imagined and America Realized the Enlightenment ANCHOR PRESS/DOUBLEDAY GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK 1977 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Commager, Henry Steele, 1902- The empire of reason. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. United States—Intellectual life—18th century. 2. Enlightenment. 3. United States—History— Revolution, 1775-1783—Causes. I. Title. E163.C73 973.2 ISBN: 0-385-11672-1 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 76-2837 Copyright © 1977 by Henry Steele Commager All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America FOR MARY WITH LOVE Contents I The Enlightenment as an Age of Discovery 1 II The Enlightenment Spreads to America 15 III The Enlightenment Unveils a New World of Nature and of Man 40 IV America Under Attack 71 V The Enlightenment Vindicates America 85 VI The Enlightenment Celebrates the Spirit of the Laws 109 VII “The Uncorrupted New States and the Corrupted Old” 119 VIII Americans Bring Forth a New Nation 162 IX Americans Realize the Theories of the Wisest Writers 176 X The Blessings of Liberty 198 APPENDIX The Term “Philosophe” 236 INDEX 321
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