Postmodernism and the Enlightenment: New Perspectives in Eighteenth-Century French Intellectual History

Why is postmodernist discourse so biased against the Enlightenment? Indeed, postmodern theory challenges the validity of the rational basis of modern historical scholarship and the Enlightenment itself. Rather than avoiding this conflict, the contributors to this vibrant collection return to the philosophical roots of the Enlightenment, and do not hesitate to look at them through a postmodernist lens, engaging issues like anti-Semitism, Utopianism, colonial legal codes, and ideas of authorship. Dismissing the notion that the two camps are ideologically opposed and thus incompatible, these essays demonstrate an exciting new scholarship that confidently mixes the empiricism of Enlightenment thought with a strong postmodernist skepticism, painting a subtler and richer historical canvas.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, Daniel Gordon; Chapter 1 Montesquieu in the Caribbean, Malick W. Ghachem; Chapter 2 Man in the Mirror, Arthur Goldhammer; Chapter 3 An Eighteenth-Century Time Machine, Daniel Rosenberg; Chapter 4 Virtuous Economies, Elena Russo; Chapter 5 Rationalizing the Enlightenment, Ronald Schechter; Chapter 6 Writing the History of Censorship in the Age of Enlightenment, Sophia Rosenfeld; Chapter 7 Reproducing Utopia, Alessa Johns; Chapter 8 The Pre-Postmodernism of Carl Becker, Johnson Kent Wright; Chapter 9 Foucault, Nietzsche, Enlightenment, Louis Miller; Chapter 10 On the Supposed Obsolescence of the French Enlightenment, Daniel Gordon;

About the Author :
Daniel Gordon is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is author of Citizens without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought, 1670-1789 and translator and editor of Bedford/St. Martin's recent edition of Candide. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Review :
"This superb collection not only provides original and important perspectives on many aspects of eighteenth century thought; it also insists, passionately and provocatively, that the Enlightenment could speak to the drama and frustrations of the human condition more cogently than the philosophy of our own day. The contributors engage lucidly and critically with postmodernism, making keen use of its important insights, but sternly deflating the widespread misconceptins it has engendered about its intellectual predecessors. Few readers will agree with everything said here. But all readers will find something to make them stop, and ponder, and reflect." -- David A.Bell,Professor ofHistory, John Hopkins University "This much-needed collection of essays explodes postmodernism's ignorant prejudices about the Enlightenment and restores that great intellectual movement to its proper place as the source of the modern Enlightenment fashion, the essays are vigorously argued and lucidly written. An Outstanding book." -- PaulRobinson, Professor of History, Stanford University