The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth–Century Philosophers (Nota Bene) - Softcover

Becker, Carl L

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300101503 ISBN 13: 9780300101508

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2004

Synopsis

“Will remain a classic―a beautifully finished literary product.”―Charles A. Beard, American Historical Review
 
In this volume, the distinguished American historian Carl L. Becker challenges the belief that the eighteenth century was essentially modern in its temper. He writes, in crystalline prose, that the period commonly described as the Age of Reason was, in fact, very far from that; that Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, and Locke were living in a medieval world; and that these philosophers “demolished the Heavenly City of St. Augustine only to rebuild it with more up-to-date materials.”
 
In a Foreword written for this edition, Johnson Kent Wright looks at the book’s continuing relevance within the context of current discussion about the Enlightenment, noting that Becker’s work is “likely to beguile and provoke readers for a long time to come.”

About this title

About the Author

Carl L. Becker (1873–1945), a professor of European history at Cornell University, was one of the world’s leading authorities on eighteenth-century thought. Johnson Kent Wright is associate professor in the department of history at Arizona State University and author of A Classical Republican in Eighteenth-Century France: The Political Thought of Mably.

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300101503
• ISBN 13: 9780300101508
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 192