The Enlightenment

This history of the Enlightenment reframes the period as a pursuit of practical ways to achieve happiness, rather than just rationale and reason. The author explains how the Enlightenment has been misunderstood and misrepresented by its conservative enemies, and provides a comprehensive account of the period from 1680 to 1790. Along with philosophical and theological debates, the book also explores literature, music, and visual arts as means of conveying enlightenment ideas. The author argues that the Enlightenment was an attempt to increase human happiness and shows how it was a formative period of European and world history.