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American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History) Paperback – August 14, 2018

by Caroline Winterer (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 30 ratings
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A provocative reassessment of the concept of an American golden age of European-born reason and intellectual curiosity in the years following the Revolutionary War

The accepted myth of the “American Enlightenment” suggests that the rejection of monarchy and establishment of a new republic in the United States in the eighteenth century was the realization of utopian philosophies born in the intellectual salons of Europe and radiating outward to the New World. In this revelatory work, Stanford historian Caroline Winterer argues that a national mythology of a unitary, patriotic era of enlightenment in America was created during the Cold War to act as a shield against the threat of totalitarianism, and that Americans followed many paths toward political, religious, scientific, and artistic enlightenment in the 1700s that were influenced by European models in more complex ways than commonly thought. Winterer’s book strips away our modern inventions of the American national past, exploring which of our ideas and ideals are truly rooted in the eighteenth century and which are inventions and mystifications of more recent times.
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  1. Part of series
    The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History
  2. Print length
    368 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Yale University Press
  5. Publication date
    August 14, 2018
  6. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0300240260
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0300240269
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A] deeply learned and eloquently written book.”—Edward Cahill, Reviews in American History

"[Winterer] reminds readers that the Enlightenment in the US was not synonymous with the American Revolution and that Americans not only absorbed Enlightenment thought but also contributed to it in important ways."—Choice

"Winterer has penned an engaging and wide-ranging survey of predominantly eighteenth-century North American intellectual history and the process of “enlightenment.”…[t]he often-dazzling array of topics and impressive erudition demonstrated surely mean that American Enlightenments will become a core text of Enlightenment courses . . . "—Intellectual History Review

"Fascinating . . . engagingly unfamiliar and surprising. American Enlightenments offers a valuable and provocative contribution to the ongoing question of how to understand the eighteenth-century enlightenment and its meaning for our contemporary moment."—Journal of the Early Republic



"A work of outstanding scholarship, American Enlightenments views the Enlightenment as pluralistic, with diverse manifestations, each with its own context, motivations, and achievements. Caroline Winterer’s approach is novel, accessible, refreshing, and up-to-date. Her book is a major accomplishment."—Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848

"In a lively prose style that is as convincing as it is entertaining, Caroline Winterer comprehensively covers the American Enlightenment generously defined as the whole North American continent."—Joyce Appleby, professor emerita of history, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination

"American Enlightenments advances our conception of Enlightenment—both in America and Europe—in powerful ways. With chapters devoted to everything from seashells and geology to the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica, Winterer convincingly argues that our perception of a unified 'American Enlightenment' is a myth, while at the same time showing Enlightenment in general to be a conversation that required and included America."—Mark A. Peterson, University of California, Berkeley

"Caroline Winterer’s luminous study of the correspondence chains that bound figures like Franklin and Jefferson to their counterparts in Europe shows us an Enlightenment far richer than any we have seen before. She shows us not an abstract age of Reason but men and women reasoning intensely and creatively with the knottiest problems of science, politics, religion, and philosophy of their times."—Daniel T. Rodgers, Princeton University

About the Author

Caroline Winterer is Anthony P. Meier Family Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Humanities Center. The author of three previous books, she received an American Ingenuity Award from the Smithsonian Institution.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; Reprint edition (August 14, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300240260
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300240269
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 30 ratings

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Caroline Winterer

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Top reviews from the United States

  • William H. Mathews
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good as new.
    Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Just as promised!
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  • H. Woods
    5.0 out of 5 stars The author even questions whether the Enlightenment’s goals were better served by the rabble of republics or under the ...
    Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2017
    American Enlightenments by Caroline Winterer is a thorough and very readable account of the so-called Enlightenment of the 1600s-1700s, for years thought to have emerged from the salons of Europe and then its principles applied in the New World, resulting in the founding of the republic of the United States. The author contends that this is a made-up story to differentiate post WWII Americans from the dictatorships that threatened the U.S. during the Cold War. But colonists during the Enlightenment had more discussions and trading of scientific data at the time with Europe through the “republic of letters,” the birth of exchanging of knowledge over long distances by an increasingly literate populace. It was the on-ground findings and experience and discovery of freedom from ancient royal castes that broke the ice on new ideas, and not the aristocratic European salons that spurred the Enlightenment into the areas of science — still the domain of unlocking God’s plan — government and religion. The essays explore Americans’ attempts to ennoble the New World’s past with explanations of ancient native civilizations of mound-builders in the south and midwest, and of the Olmec, Aztec, Maya and Inca advancements, as well the “counting” of remaining Indian cultures aimed at eventually subdividing the land because it was not subject to “enlightened” use. Also explored are the attempts to enlighten the use of slavery in the Americas, and the Enlightenment’s affect on America’s burgeoning religious cultures. The author even questions whether the Enlightenment’s goals were better served by the rabble of republics or under the guidance of ambitious modern monarchies. All and all a very enlightened (couldn’t resist) look at New World history and philosophy from the point of view at the time and not what we wish or need it to be.
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Allen S
    4.0 out of 5 stars Must read
    Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2019
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    Well written. Well argued. An eye opener
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  • A. Wilson
    5.0 out of 5 stars innovation, a national hallmark
    Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2020
    Compelling perspective of the nation’s founding, fueled by innovative thought.
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  • BarryAZ
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good course work materia
    Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Very fascinating work -- offering a view of the depth of American Enlightenment thinking distinct from the English, Scottish, or French Enlightenment.
    3 people found this helpful
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