Publisher's Synopsis
Did the enlightenment of the eighteenth century matter to those who were not intellectuals or members of a small, wealthy elite? The focus of many earlier studies would suggest not, or (at best) scarcely at all. But in his incisive new study, Munck shows not only what the enlightenment meant for high society, but also for broader and only partially educated social groups. In short, this book is about the widespread diffusion of the enlightenment, demonstrating persuasively how much more the enlightenment was than the intellectual achievements of a few great individuals and a 'bourgeois' salon culture. In the process of emancipation in this period from inherited values and beliefs, the changes can be studied at least as fruitfully from the vantage point of more ordinary individuals.
Three great cities (Paris, London and Hamburg) are central to the study, but comparisons range widely across much of Europe. The book begins with publication of Montesquieu's Persian Letter in 1721 and ends not with the start of the French Revolution but rather with its change of direction in 1794, and with a reassessment of enlightened absolutism in the light of changing relationships between state and the citizen.
