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Article: New thoughts on an old idea.(The Enlightenment and the Intellectual Foundations of Modern Culture)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Modern Age
- Article date:
- June 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Intercollegiate Studies Institute Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Enlightenment and the Intellectual Foundations of Modern Culture, by Louis Dupre, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
RUMOR HAS IT that when Peter Gay published The Enlightenment: An Interpretation (the first volume of which won the National Book Award in 1967) the author regretted that he had not subtitled the work "The Interpretation." Gay's paean to the philosophes was marvelously written, but to say the least, it was not about to stand the test of time. Within a few years, and in a development no one could have predicted, the Enlightenment became one of the dirtiest words in the Western intellectual tradition. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the ...