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The Roads to Modernity
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Table of Contents

Preface
Prologue

The British Enlightenment: The Sociology of Virtue
1. “Social Affections” and Religious Dispositions
2. Political Economy and Moral Sentiments
3. Edmund Burke’s Enlightenment
4. Radical Dissenters
5. Methodism: “A Social Religion”
6. “The Age of Benevolence”

The French Enlightenment: The Ideology of Reason

The American Enlightenment: The Politics of Liberty

Epilogue
Notes
Index

About the Author

Gertrude Himmelfarb taught for twenty-three years at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York, where she was named Distinguished Professor of History in 1978. Now Professor Emeritus, she lives with her husband, Irving Kristol, in Washington, D.C. Her previous books include: The De-Moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values; On Looking into the Abyss: Untimely Thoughts on Culture and Society; Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians; The New History and the Old; Marriage and Morals Among the Victorians; The Idea of Poverty: England in the Early Industrial Age; On Liberty and Liberalism: The Case of John Stuart Mill; Victorian Minds (nominated for a National Book Award); Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution; and Lord Acton: A Study in Conscience and Politics.

Reviews

“Support[ed] with great passion and wide-ranging scholarship. . . . Himmelfarb has written a keenly argued and thought-provoking intellectual history of the 18th century.” –San Francisco Chronicle “Exciting intellectual pugilism É Himmelfarb mounts a vigorous argument that the British [Enlightenment] was reformist rather than subversive, respectful of the past and present even while looking forward to a more egalitarian future.” –The New York Times Book Review“[Himmelfarb’s] writing . . . has a verve and sharpness. . . . It is a pleasure to read.” –The New York Review of Books“Exceptionally well written and clever.”–The Washington Post Book World“Himmelfarb has one of the keenest intellects of our time.” –The Houston Chronicle

"Support[ed] with great passion and wide-ranging scholarship. . . . Himmelfarb has written a keenly argued and thought-provoking intellectual history of the 18th century." -San Francisco Chronicle "Exciting intellectual pugilism E Himmelfarb mounts a vigorous argument that the British [Enlightenment] was reformist rather than subversive, respectful of the past and present even while looking forward to a more egalitarian future." -The New York Times Book Review"[Himmelfarb's] writing . . . has a verve and sharpness. . . . It is a pleasure to read." -The New York Review of Books"Exceptionally well written and clever."-The Washington Post Book World"Himmelfarb has one of the keenest intellects of our time." -The Houston Chronicle

Himmelfarb (emeritus, Graduate Sch., CUNY) separates the French Enlightenment from the British and American Enlightenments, which she views as the expression of a moral philosophy found primarily in the writings of Adam Smith, David Hume, and Edmund Burke. Himmelfarb argues that a moral sentiment throughout the writings of these British philosophers led to an Age of Benevolence, in which a practical altruism prevailed in the Anglo-Saxon realm-a sentiment not commonly associated with these icons of the conservative pantheon. Conversely, she views the French Enlightenment as a more abstract and dogmatic intellectual phenomenon; the French philosophes' insistence on the compassionless primacy of Reason over the lesser emotions ultimately led to the bloody excesses of the Reign of Terror. In conclusion, she asserts that in America the moral sentiments expressed by Smith, Hume, and Burke are now embodied in George W. Bush's fading call for compassionate conservatism. Grounded in the texts, from which she quotes copiously, and sure to be controversial, this vibrant example of intellectual history should be in both academic and public libraries.-Jim Doyle, Sara Hightower Regional Lib., Rome, GA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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