Emphasizes the revolutionary break with tradition enacted by the British Enlightenment and the effects of its inversion of traditional hierarchies. With specific focus on economics and politics, religion and society, this collection amplifies the remarkable contribution Michael McKeon has made to the intellectual history of the Enlightenment.
This book “historicizes” the British Enlightenment, 1650-1800, as the beginning of the modern world by reconstructing what it was like to live through the emergence of concepts and practices that have come to define the character of daily existence.