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Article: MATRIX OF MODERNITY.(British Enlightenment)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- April 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 History Today Ltd. 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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In his recent Royal Historical Society Gresham Lecture, Roy Porter discusses how the British Enlightenment paved the way for the creation of the modern world.
THIS MILLENNIUM YEAR led historians to address moments in the past which represent epochs in human affairs. The Enlightenment comprised such a turning-point, since it secularised the worldview and trained eyes and attention towards the future. British thinkers played an influential part in this intellectual revolution -- though that is a contribution often ignored or played down, by contrast to that of France.
In the eighteenth century, attention became focused, perhaps for the first time ever, on ...