Jacob, The Enlightenment - A Brief History With Documents; Porter, The Enlightenment; Munch, The Enlightenment, A Comparative Social History, 1721-1794

Abstract

"Dare to reason!" wrote Immanuel Kant in I 784, echoing the words of the ancient Roman poet Horace. "Have the courage to use your own mind! That is the motto of enlightenment." As historians have noted, that is truly the motto of the Enlightenment itself. The three works under review remind us that we are heirs of the Enlightenment in both its positive and less salutary aspects. They also demonstrate how complex it has become to attempt analysis of this seminal movement. All three reflect the current trend to focus less on the great writers of the period and more on secondary figures, the transmitters of ideas however diluted or transformed, and on the intended audiences for what are today often almost forgotten publications. The result is as many questions as resolutions. Even though none of these three books represent theoretical breakthroughs, they do provide useful overviews of the current state of Enlightenment scholarship.