Publisher's Synopsis
This work covers the broad diffusion of the Enlightenment in the 18th century, studying the impact of the Enlightenment not just on the intellectual and wealthy elite, but also on those broader and only partially educated social groups of whom Voltaire was once so famously dismissive. The author seeks to demonstrate that the Enlightenment was much more than the intellectual achievements of a few great individuals, and the "bougeois" salon culture to which it has somethimes been reduced. He illustrates that changes in attitudes and beliefs during the 18th century can be studied at least as fruitfully from the vantage point of ordinary individuals - those who read newspapers, frequented coffee houses or societies, shared in popular entertainments, or became interested in (and sometimes involved in) current social and political issues. Three cities (London, Paris and Hamburg) are central to this account, but comparisons range widely over London and western Europe.
