Enlightenment historiography  

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-:''[[18th century literature]], [[18th century philosophy]], [[18th century]], [[Counter-Enlightenment]] '' +More than any other, however it is [[Robert Darnton]] who most radically changed Enlightenment historiography. {{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} Consider, for example, the following citation from ''The Literary Underground of the Old Regime'' (1982):
-'''The Enlightenment''' was a period of time ranging from part of the [[17th century]] through much of the [[18th century]], characterized particularly by the importance of [[logic]] and [[reason]]. It culminated in the American and [[French revolution]]s, as well as the [[Industrial Revolution]].+
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-The motto of enlightenment was expressed by [[Immanuel Kant]] in "[[Sapere aude!]] Have courage to use your own intelligence!". While seventeenth century philosophy saw the detachment of philosophy from [[theology]], although it still offered arguments for the existence of – a [[deity]], [[18th-century philosophy]] was to go still further, leaving theology and [[religion]] behind altogether.)+
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-:"[[Media]], as we know it, first emerged at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Papers, journals, broadsheets, all became widely available in the new created public space of the [[coffeehouse]]. [...] The popular market for art and literature liberated writers and artists from the need for court patronage. No longer having to please their sponsors, they could experiment, and speak out as brashly as they wished." --[[Ken Goffman]] via [[Counterculture Through the Ages]], p. 162 +
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-The Enlightenment was followed by [[Romanticism]], which was a reaction against the rationalization of nature by the Enlightenment. +
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-== Contemporary art movements ==+
-:''[[neoclassicism]] ''+
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-== Key people ==+
-[[Denis Diderot]] - [[Immanuel Kant]] - [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] - [[Marquis de Sade]] - [[Spinoza]] - [[Voltaire]]+
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-== Related: ==+
-[[anti-clericalism]] - [[capitalism]] (rise of) - [[clandestine]] and [[anonymous publishing]] - [[libertine]] - [[materialism]] - [[radical]] politics - [[reason]] (main trope) - [[French Revolution]] - [[Industrial Revolution]] (rise of) - [[print culture]] (result of) +
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-== Compare ==+
-[[counter-enlightenment]] +
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-== Historians and texts ==+
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-*''[[The Enlightenment: An Interpretation: The Science of Freedom]]'', [[Peter Gay]], 1969.+
-*''[[Dialectic of Enlightenment]]'' (1944) - Horkheimer and Adorno+
-*[[Robert Darnton]]+
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-**''[[The Business of Enlightenment: A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie, 1775-1800]]'' (1979)+
-**''[[The Literary Underground of the Old Regime]]'' (1982) ISBN 0674536576 +
-** ''[[The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France]]'' (1995)+
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-*[[John Mullan]]+
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-== ''Encyclopédie'' ==+
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-The French ''[[Encyclopédie]]'' was a quintessential summary of thought and belief of the Enlightenment. It tried to destroy superstitions and provide access to human knowledge. In ancien régime France it caused a storm of controversy, however. This was mostly due to its religious tolerance (though this should not be exaggerated; the article on "Atheism" defended the state's right to persecute and to execute atheists). The encyclopedia praised Protestant thinkers and challenged Catholic dogma. The entire work was banned; but because it had many highly placed supporters, work continued and each volume was delivered clandestinely to subscribers.+
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-== Social and cultural interpretation ==+
-In opposition to the intellectual historiographical approach of the Enlightenment, which examines the various currents, or discourses of intellectual thought within the European context during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the cultural (or social) approach examines the changes that occurred in European society and culture. Under this approach, the Enlightenment is less a collection of thought than a process of changing sociabilities and cultural practices – both the “content” and the processes by which this content was spread are now important. [[Roger Chartier]] describes it as follows: +
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-:This movement [from the intellectual to the cultural/social] implies casting doubt on two ideas: first, that practices can be deduced from the discourses that authorize or justify them; second, that it is possible to translate the terms of an explicit ideology the latent meaning of social mechanisms.+
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-One of the primary elements of the cultural interpretation of the Enlightenment is the rise of the [[public sphere]] in Europe. [[Jürgen Habermas]] has influenced thinking on the public sphere more than any other, though his model is increasingly called into question. The essential problem that Habermas attempted to answer concerned the conditions necessary for “rational, critical, and genuinely open discussion of public issues”. Or, more simply, the social conditions required for Enlightenment ideas to be spread and discussed. His response was the formation in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of the “bourgeois public sphere”, a “realm of communication marked by new arenas of debate, more open and accessible forms of urban public space and sociability, and an explosion of print culture". More specifically, Habermas highlights three essential elements of the public sphere: it was egalitarian; it discussed the domain of "common concern"; argument was founded on reason.+
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-James Van Horn Melton provides a good summary of the values of this bourgeois public sphere: its members held reason to be supreme; everything was open to criticism (the public sphere is critical); and its participants opposed secrecy of all sorts. This helps explain what Habermas meant by the domain of "common concern". Habermas uses the term to describe those areas of political/social knowledge and discussion that were previously the exclusive territory of the state and religious authorities, now open to critical examination by the public sphere. +
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-Habermas credits the creation of the bourgeois public sphere to two long-term historical trends: the rise of the modern nation state and the rise of capitalism. The modern nation state in its consolidation of public power created by counterpoint a private realm of society independent of the state – allowing for the public sphere. Capitalism likewise increased society’s autonomy and self-awareness, along with creating an increasing need for the exchange of information. As the nascent public sphere expanded, it embraced a large variety of institutions, the most commonly cited being coffee houses and cafés, salons and the literary public sphere, figuratively localized in the Republic of Letters.+
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-Dorinda Outram provides a more nuanced description of the rise of the public sphere. The context of the rise of the public sphere was the economic and social change commonly grouped under the effects of the [[Industrial Revolution]]: "economic expansion, increasing urbanisation, rising population and improving communications in comparison to the stagnation of the previous century". Rising efficiency in production techniques and communication lowered the prices of consumer goods at the same time as it increased the amount and variety of goods available to consumers (including the literature essential to the public sphere). Meanwhile, the colonial experience (most European states had colonial Empires in the eighteenth century) began to expose European society to extremely heterogeneous cultures. Outram writes that the end result was the breaking down of "barriers between cultural systems, religious divides, gender differences and geographical areas". In short, the social context was set for the public sphere to come into existence.+
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-The Habermasian model has been criticized on all fronts by historians. That it was bourgeois is contradicted by the many examples of noble and lower class participation in areas such as the coffeehouses and the freemasonic lodges. That it was independent and critical of the state is contradicted by the diverse cases of government-sponsored public institutions and government participation in debate, along with the cases of private individuals using public venues to promote the status quo.+
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-==== How public was the public sphere? ====+
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-The word “public” implies the highest level of inclusivity – the public sphere by definition should be open to all. However, as the analysis of many “public” institutions of the Enlightenment will show, this sphere was only public to relative degrees. Indeed, as Roger Chartier emphasizes, Enlightenment thinkers frequently contrasted their conception of the “public” with that of the people: Chartier cites [[Condorcet]], who contrasted “opinion” with populace; [[Jean-François Marmontel|Marmontel]] with “the opinion of men of letters” versus “the opinion of the multitude”; and [[d’Alembert]], who contrasted the “truly enlightened public with “the blind and noisy multitude”. As Mona Ozouf underlines, public opinion was defined in opposition to the opinion of the greater population. While the nature of public opinion during the Enlightenment is as difficult to define as it is today, it is nonetheless clear that the body that held it (ie. the public sphere) was exclusive rather than inclusive. This observation will become more apparent during the descriptions of the institutions of the public sphere, most of which excluded both women and the lower classes.+
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-== Public institutions ==+
-:''[[The public institutions of the Enlightenment]]''+
-The [[public institution]]s of the Enlightenment included [[Academies]], the [[book industry]], [[Natural history]], [[journal]]s, [[The Republic of Letters]] and [[Grub Street]], [[coffeehouse]], [[debating societies]], [[Freemasonic lodge]]s and [[salon (gathering)|Salon]]s.+
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-== A historiographical overview ==+
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-:''[[Enlightenment historiography]]''+
-==Important figures==+<blockquote>
- +“Perhaps the Enlightenment was a more down-to-earth affair than the rarefied climate of opinion described by textbook writers, and we should question the overly highbrow, overly metaphysical view of intellectual life in the eighteenth century.”<ref>Robert Darnton, ''The Literary Underground of the Old Regime'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1982), 2. </ref>
-* [[Thomas Abbt]] (1738–1766) ''German''. would later be called [[nationalism]] in ''Vom Tode für's Vaterland'' (On dying for one's nation).+</blockquote>
-* [[Jean le Rond d'Alembert]] (1717–1783) ''French''. Mathematician and physicist, one of the editors of ''Encyclopédie''.+
-* [[Balthasar Bekker]] (1634–1698) ''Dutch'', a key figure in the Early Enlightenment. In his book De Philosophia Cartesiana (1668) Bekker argued that theology and philosophy each had their separate terrain and that Nature can no more be explained from Scripture than can theological truth be deduced from Nature.+
-* [[Pierre Bayle]] (1647–1706) ''French''. Literary critic known for ''Nouvelles de la république des lettres'' and ''Dictionnaire historique et critique'', and one of the earliest influences on the Enlightenment thinkers to advocate tolerance between the difference religious beliefs.+
-* [[Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria|Cesare Beccaria]] ''Italian''. [[Criminal law]] reformer, best known for his treatise [[On Crimes and Punishments]] (1764).+
-* [[George Berkeley]] ''Irish''. Philosopher and mathematician famous for developing the theory of [[subjective idealism]].+
-* [[Justus Henning Boehmer]] (1674–1749), German ecclesiastical jurist, one of the first reformer of the church law and the civil law which was basis for further reforms and maintained until the 20th century.+
-* [[Simón Bolívar]] (1783–1830)''Venezuelan.'' Political leader who played a key role in Latin America's successful struggle for independence from [[Spain]]+
-* [[James Boswell]] (1740–1795) ''Scottish''. Biographer of [[Samuel Johnson]], helped established the norms for writing [[biography]] in general.+
-* [[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon|G.L. Buffon]] (1707–1788) ''French''. Author of ''L'Histoire Naturelle'' who considered [[Natural Selection]] and the similarities between humans and apes.+
-* [[Edmund Burke]] (1729–1797) ''Irish''. Parliamentarian and political philosopher, best known for pragmatism, considered important to both [[liberalism|liberal]] and [[conservatism|conservative]] thinking.+
-* [[James Burnett Lord Monboddo]] (1714–1799) ''Scottish''. Philosopher, [[jurist]], pre-[[evolution]]ary thinker and contributor to [[linguistics|linguistic]] [[evolution]]. See [[Scottish Enlightenment]]+
-* [[Dimitrie Cantemir]] (1673–1723) ''Romanian''. Philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer. He was a member of the [[Royal Academy of Berlin]]. His most important works were [[History of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire]] and [[Descriptio Moldavie]].+
-* [[Marquis de Condorcet]] (1743–1794) ''French''. Philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist who devised the concept of a Condorcet method.+
-* [[Ekaterina Dashkova]] (1743-1810) ''Russian''. Director of the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences (known now as the Russian Academy of Sciences).+
-* [[José Celestino Mutis]] (1755–1808), ''Spanish'' botanist and mathematician, lead the first botanic expeditions to South America, and built a major collection of plants.+
-* [[Denis Diderot]] (1713–1784) ''French''. Founder of the ''Encyclopédie'', speculated on [[free will]] and attachment to material objects, contributed to the theory of literature.+
-* [[Benjamin Franklin]] (1706–1790) ''American''. Statesman, scientist, political philosopher, pragmatic deist, author. As a philosopher known for his writings on nationality, economic matters, aphorisms published in ''Poor Richard's Almanac'' and polemics in favour of American Independence. Involved with writing the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] and the Constitution of 1787.+
-* [[French Encyclopédistes]]+
-* [[Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle]]+
-* [[Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuveau]],(1746–1818), writer and philosopher who had used for the first time in 1785 the word "communism" in a doctrinal sense.+
-* [[Edward Gibbon]] (1737–1794) ''English''. Historian best known for his ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire|Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]''.+
-* [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]] is closely identified with Enlightenment values, progressing from ''[[Sturm und Drang]]'' and participating with [[Schiller]] in the movement of [[Weimar Classicism]].+
-* [[Olympe de Gouges]]+
-* [[Joseph Haydn]]+
-* [[Helvétius]]+
-* [[Johann Gottfried von Herder]] ''German''. Theologian and linguist. Proposed that language determines thought, introduced concepts of ethnic study and nationalism, influential on later Romantic thinkers. Early supporter of democracy and republican [[self rule]].+
-* [[Thomas Hobbes]] (1588–1679) English philosopher, who wrote ''[[Leviathan (book)|Leviathan]]'', a key text in political philosophy.+
-* [[Baron d'Holbach]] (1723–1789) ''French''. Author, [[encyclopaedist]] and Europe's first outspoken [[atheist]]. Roused much controversy over his criticism of religion as a whole in his work ''[[The System of Nature]]''.+
-* [[Robert Hooke]] (1635–1703) ''English'', probably the leading experimenter of his age, Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society. Performed the work which quantified such concepts as [[Boyle's Law]] and the inverse-square nature of gravitation, father of the science of [[microscopy]].+
-* [[David Hume]] (1711–1776) ''Scottish''. Historian, philosopher and economist. Best known for his [[empiricism]] and [[scientific scepticism]], advanced doctrines of [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]] and material causes. Influenced Kant and Adam Smith.+
-* [[Thomas Jefferson]] (1743–1826) ''American''. Statesman, political philosopher, educator, deist. As a philosopher best known for the ''[[United States Declaration of Independence]]'' (1776) and his interpretation of the ''[[United States Constitution]]'' (1787) which he pursued as president. Argued for natural rights as the basis of all states, argued that violation of these rights negates the contract which bind a people to their rulers and that therefore there is an inherent "Right to Revolution."+
-* [[Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos]] (1744–1811), Main figure of the Spanish Enlightenment. Preeminent statesman.+
-* [[Immanuel Kant]] (1724–1804) ''German''. Philosopher and physicist. Established [[critical philosophy]] on a systematic basis, proposed a material theory for the origin of the solar system, wrote on ethics and morals. Prescribed a politics of Enlightenment in ''[[What is Enlightenment?]]'' (1784). Influenced by Hume and Isaac Newton. Important figure in German Idealism, and important to the work of [[Fichte]] and [[Hegel]].+
-* [[Hugo Kołłątaj]] (1750–1812) ''Polish''. He was active in the [[Commission for National Education]] and the Society for Elementary Textbooks, and reformed the [[Jagiellonian University|Kraków Academy]], of which he was rector in 1783–86. He co-authored the [[Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]]'s [[Constitution of May 3, 1791]], and founded the Assembly of Friends of the Government Constitution to assist in the document's implementation.+
-* [[Ignacy Krasicki]] (1735–1801): ''[[Poland|Polish]]''. Leading poet of the [[Polish Enlightenment]], hailed by contemporaries as "the Prince of Poets." After the 1764 election of [[Stanisław August Poniatowski]] as [[List of Polish monarchs|King of Poland]], Krasicki became the new King's confidant and chaplain. He participated in the King's famous "[[Thursday dinners]]" and co-founded the ''[[Monitor (Polish newspaper)|Monitor]]'', the preeminent periodical of the [[Polish Enlightenment]] sponsored by the King. He is remembered especially for his ''[[Fables and Parables]]''.+
-* [[Antoine Lavoisier]]+
-* [[Gottfried Leibniz]] Inventor of Calculus as we know it today and wrote ''Protogea'', amongst other scientific and philosophical works.+
-* [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]] (1729–1781) ''German''. Dramatist, critic, political philosopher. Created theatre in the German language, began reappraisal of Shakespeare to being a central figure, and the importance of classical dramatic norms as being crucial to good dramatic writing, theorized that the centre of political and cultural life is the middle class.+
-* [[Carl Linnaeus]] (1707–1778) Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of [[Binomial nomenclature]].+
-* [[John Locke]] (1632–1704) ''English'' Philosopher. Important empiricist who expanded and extended the work of Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes. Seminal thinker in the realm of the relationship between the state and the individual, the contractual basis of the state and the rule of law. Argued for personal liberty emphasizing the rights of [[property]], its this emphasis the American constitution owes much to. Among those of whom his writings influenced were [[Scottish Enlightenment]] thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. This influence is reflected in the American Declaration of Independence. +
-* [[Mikhail Lomonosov]] ''Russian'' Polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. +
-* [[James Madison]] (1751–1836) ''American''. Statesman and political philosopher. Played a key role in the writing of the [[United States Constitution]] and providing a theoretical justification for it in his contributions to [[The Federalist Papers]]. +
-* [[Sebastião de Melo, Marquis of Pombal]] (1699–1782) Portuguese statesman notable for his swift and competent leadership in the aftermath of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. He also implemented sweeping economic policies to regulate commercial activity and standardize quality throughout the country. The term Pombaline is used to describe not only his tenure, but also the architectural style which formed after the great earthquake.+
-* [[Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro]] (1676–1764) ''Spanish'', was the most prominent promoter of the critical empiricist attitude at the dawn of the Spanish Enlightenment. See also the [[Spain|Spanish]] [[Martín Sarmiento]].+
-* [[Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]] (1689–1755) ''French'' political thinker. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, taken for granted in modern discussions of government and implemented in many constitutions all over the world.+
-* [[Leandro Fernández de Moratín]] (1760–1828) ''Spanish''. Dramatist and translator, support of [[republicanism]] and free thinking. Transitional figure to Romanticism.+
-* [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]+
-* [[Nikolay Novikov]] (1744–1818) ''Russian''. Philanthropist and journalist who sought to raise the culture of Russian readers and publicly argued with the Empress. See [[Russian Enlightenment]] for other prominent figures.+
-* [[Dositej Obradović]] (1742–1811) ''Serbian''. Writer, philosopher and linguist and one of the most influential proponents of Serbian national and cultural Renaissance.+
-* [[Thomas Paine]] (1737–1809) ''English''. Pamphleteer, Deist, and polemicist, most famous for ''[[Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]'' attacking England's domination of the colonies in America. The pamphlet was key in fomenting the [[American Revolution]]. Also wrote ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' which remains one of the most persuasive critiques of the Bible ever written, his writings (mainly ''Age of Reason'' and ''[[Rights of Man]]'') made Americans study their religion, their behaviors, and the ruling hierarchy. His work "The Rights of Man" was written in defense of the French Revolution and is the classic example of the Enlightenment arguments in favor of classical liberalism.+
-* [[Francois Quesney]] (1694–1774) ''French'' economist of the [[Physiocrats|Physiocratic school]]. He also practiced surgery.+
-* [[Thomas Reid]] (1710–1796) ''Scottish''. Presbyterian minister and Philosopher. Contributed greatly to the idea of Common-Sense philosophy and was Hume's most famous contemporary critic. Best known for his [[An Inquiry Into The Human Mind]]. Heavily influenced William James.+
-* [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] (1712–1778) Swiss political philosopher. Argued that the basis of morality was conscience, rather than reason, as most other philosophers argued. He wrote [[Social Contract (Rousseau)|Du Contrat Social]], in which Rousseau claims that citizens of a state must take part in creating a 'social contract' laying out the state's ground rules in order to found an ideal society in which they are free from arbitrary power. His rejection of reason in favor of the "Noble Savage" and his idealizing of ages past make him truly fit more into the romantic philosophical school, which was a reaction against the enlightenment. He largely rejected the individualism inherent in classical liberalism, arguing that the general will overrides the will of the individual.+
-* [[Mikhailo Shcherbatov]]+
-* [[Adam Smith]] (1723–1790) Scottish economist and philosopher. He wrote ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'', in which he argued that wealth was not money in itself, but wealth was derived from the added value in manufactured items produced by both invested capital and labour. He is sometimes considered to be the founding father of the [[laissez-faire]] economic theory, but in fact argues for some degree of government control in order to maintain equity. Just prior to this he wrote ''[[Theory of Moral Sentiments]]'', explaining how it is humans function and interact through what he calls ''sympathy'', setting up important context for ''The Wealth of Nations''.+
-* [[Baruch Spinoza]] (1632–1677) ''Dutch'', philosopher who is considered to have laid the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment.+
-* [[Stanisław August Poniatowski]] (1732–98), the last king of independent Poland, a leading light of the Enlightenment in the [[Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]], and co-author of one of the world's first modern constitutions, the [[Constitution of May 3, 1791]].+
-* [[Emanuel Swedenborg]] (1688–1772) Natural philosopher and theologian whose search for the operation of the soul in the body led him to construct a detailed metaphysical model for spiritual-natural causation.+
-* [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] (1805-1859)+
-* [[François-Marie Arouet]] (pen name [[Voltaire]]) (1694–1778) French Enlightenment writer, [[essayist]], [[deism|deist]] and [[philosophy|philosopher]]. He wrote several books, the most famous of which is [[Dictionnaire philosophique|Dictionnaire Philosophique]], in which he argued that organized religion is pernicious. He was the Enlightenment's most vigorous antireligious polemicist, as well as being a highly well known advocate of intellectual freedom.+
-* [[Adam Weishaupt]] (1748–1830) ''German'' who founded the Order of the Illuminati.+
-* [[John Wilkes]]+
-* [[Christian Wolff (philosopher)|Christian Wolff]] (1679–1754) German+
-* [[Mary Wollstonecraft]] (1759–1797) British writer, philosopher, and feminist.+
-==See also==+Indeed, in this book, Darnton examines the underbelly of the French book industry in the eighteenth century, examining the world of book smuggling and the lives of those writers (the “Grub Street Hacks”) who never met the success of their ''[[philosophe]]'' cousins. In short, rather than concerning himself with Enlightenment canon, Darnton studies “what Frenchmen wanted to read”, and who wrote, published and distributed it.<ref>Darnton, ''The Literary Underground ...'', 2. </ref>
-* [[Renaissance]]+Similarly, in ''The Business of Enlightenment. A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie 1775-1800'', Darnton states that there is no need to further study the encyclopedia itself, as “the book has been analyzed and anthologized dozen of times: to recapitulate all the studies of its intellectual content would be redundant”.<ref>Robert Darnton, ''The Business of Enlightenment. A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie 1775-1800'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), 5.</ref> He instead, as the title of the book suggests, examines the social conditions that brought about the production of the ''Encyclopédie''. This is representative of the social interpretation as a whole – an examination of the social conditions that brought about Enlightenment ideas rather than a study of the ideas themselves.
-* [[Modernity]]+
-* [[Postmodernity]]+
-* [[Rationalization (sociology)]]+
-* [[Counter-Enlightenment]]+
-* [[Public Sphere]]+
-* [[Science in the Age of Enlightenment]]+
-* [[Enlightened absolutism]]+
-* [[Humanism]]+
-* [[Secularism]]+
-* [[Higher criticism]]+
-* [[Deism]]+
-* [[Intellectualism]]+
-* [[Atlantic Revolutions]] (American Revolution, French Revolution, Latin American Revolutions and others ...)+
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More than any other, however it is Robert Darnton who most radically changed Enlightenment historiography. Template:Citation needed Consider, for example, the following citation from The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (1982):

“Perhaps the Enlightenment was a more down-to-earth affair than the rarefied climate of opinion described by textbook writers, and we should question the overly highbrow, overly metaphysical view of intellectual life in the eighteenth century.”<ref>Robert Darnton, The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1982), 2. </ref>

Indeed, in this book, Darnton examines the underbelly of the French book industry in the eighteenth century, examining the world of book smuggling and the lives of those writers (the “Grub Street Hacks”) who never met the success of their philosophe cousins. In short, rather than concerning himself with Enlightenment canon, Darnton studies “what Frenchmen wanted to read”, and who wrote, published and distributed it.<ref>Darnton, The Literary Underground ..., 2. </ref> Similarly, in The Business of Enlightenment. A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie 1775-1800, Darnton states that there is no need to further study the encyclopedia itself, as “the book has been analyzed and anthologized dozen of times: to recapitulate all the studies of its intellectual content would be redundant”.<ref>Robert Darnton, The Business of Enlightenment. A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie 1775-1800 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), 5.</ref> He instead, as the title of the book suggests, examines the social conditions that brought about the production of the Encyclopédie. This is representative of the social interpretation as a whole – an examination of the social conditions that brought about Enlightenment ideas rather than a study of the ideas themselves.


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