'The best single-volume study of the Enlightenment that we have' Literary Review\nThe Enlightenment is one of the formative periods of Western history, yet more than 300 years after it began, it remains controversial. It is often seen as the fountainhead of modern values such as human rights, religious toleration, freedom of thought, scientific thought as an exemplary form of reasoning, and rationality and evidence-based argument. Others accuse the Enlightenment of putting forward a scientific rationality which ignores the complexity and variety of human beings, propagates shallow atheism, and aims to subjugate nature to so-called technical progress.\nAnswering the question 'what is Enlightenment?' Kant famously urged men and women above all to 'have the courage to use your own understanding'. Robertson shows how the thinkers of the Enlightenment did just that, seeking a rounded understanding of humanity in which reason was balanced with emotion and sensibility. His book goes behind the controversies about the Enlightenment to return to its original texts and to show that above all it sought to increase human happiness in this world by promoting scientific inquiry and reasoned argument. His book overturns many received opinions - for example, that enlightenment necessarily implied hostility to religion (though it did challenge the authority traditionally assumed by the Churches). It is a master-class in 'big picture' history, about one of the foundational epochs of modern times.

The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680-1790

History

Ritchie Robertson

Europe

Penguin

This major new study explores the historical and literary context of Kafka's writings and links them with his emerging sense of Jewish identity. Emphasized throughout is kafka's concern with contemporary society, his distrust of its secular humanitarianism, and his yearning for a new kind of community: one based on religion. Robertson points out that in Kafka's early writing, social themes as well as psychological and moral ones are prominent but that in the later fiction many allusions and images are drawn from jewish history and tradition. His aphorisms-whose significance has been overlooked until now-are interpreted as a coherent and profound meditation on religion and society and as the intellectual framework for much of the fiction.

Kafka: Judaism, Politics, Literature

Literature & Fiction

World Literature

Oxford University Press

Review\n"A long, thoroughly satisfying history of an era that was not solely about reason but was 'also the age of feeling, sympathy and sensibility'...Stimulating and consistently engaging."-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"\n"Robertson's far-flung thematic survey...Thanks to Robertson's elegant prose and lucid analyses, this massive and deeply erudite work serves as a stimulating and accessible introduction to a watershed period in the intellectual development of the West."-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"\nMP3 CD Format 
This magisterial history—sure to become the definitive work on the subject—recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness. 
One of the formative periods of European and world history, the Enlightenment is the fountainhead of modern secular Western values: religious tolerance, freedom of thought, speech and the press, of rationality and evidence-based argument. Yet why, over three hundred years after it began, is the Enlightenment so profoundly misunderstood as controversial, the expression of soulless calculation? The answer may be that, to an extraordinary extent, we have accepted the account of the Enlightenment given by its conservative enemies. Ritchie Robertson goes back into the "long eighteenth century," from approximately 1680 to 1790, to reveal what this much-debated period was really about. 
Any account of the Enlightenment must be in large part a history of ideas. But Robertson argues that it is not solely a philosophical movement; the Enlightenment saw the publication of the Encyclopédie, which is not only a historical and philosophical compendium, but also an illustrated guide to all sorts of contemporary machinery, handicrafts, and trades aimed to improve people’s lives in immediate and practical ways. Robertson chronicles the campaigns mounted by some Enlightened figures against specific evils such as capital punishment, judicial torture, serfdom and witchcraft trials, featuring the experiences of major figures like Voltaire and Diderot with ordinary people who lived through this extraordinary moment. Robertson gives due attention to philosophical and theological debates, but also looks to literature, music, and the visual arts as prominent means of conveying enlightenment ideas. 
In seeking to correct one-sided views of the Enlightenment, Robertson ultimately puts forward his own. He does not reduce this transformative period to a formula, but instead makes the claim that indeed the Enlightenment was an attempt to increase human happiness, and to claim that happiness was possible in this world, without needing any compensatory belief in a better one beyond the grave.

The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790

World

HarperCollins B and Blackstone Publishing

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Heinrich Heine: Poems

Heinrich, Heine

History & Criticism

Bristol Classical Press

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Books by Ritchie Robertson