000			a
999			_c31874 _d31874
008			230417b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9781350277656
082			_a909.6 _bKAT
100			_aKates, Gary
245			_aBooks that made the european enlightenment
260			_bBloomsbury Academic, _a2022 _cLondon :
300			_avii, 445 p. ; _bill., _c24 cm
365			_b24.99 _cGBP _d104.20
490			_aCultures of Early Modern Europe
504			_aIncludes index.
520			_aIn contrast to traditional Enlightenment studies that focus solely on authors and ideas, Gary Kates' employs a literary lens to offer a wholly original history of the period in Europe from 1699 to 1780. Each chapter is a biography of a book which tells the story of the text from its inception through to the revolutionary era, with wider aspects of the Enlightenment era being revealed through the narrative of the book's publication and reception. Here, Kates joins new approaches to book history with more traditional intellectual history by treating authors, publishers, and readers in a balanced fashion throughout. Using a unique database of 18th-century editions representing 5,000 titles, the book looks at the multifaceted significance of bestsellers from the time. It analyses key works by Voltaire, Adam Smith, Madame de Graffigny, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume and champions the importance of a crucial innovation of the age: the rise of the 'erudite blockbuster', which for the first time in European history, helped to popularize political theory among a large portion of the middling classes. Kates also highlights how, when, and why some of these books were read in the European colonies, as well as incorporating the responses of both ordinary men and women as part of the reception histories that are so integral to the volume.
650			_aEuropean history
650			_aPolitical science and theory
650			_a Amour propre
650			_a Booksellers
650			_a Censorship
650			_aDepotism
650			_aFenelon,,Marquis de
650			_a France
650			_aHume,David
650			_aItaly
650			_aMontesquieu
650			_aPersian letters
650			_aRaynal,Abbe
650			_aEuropean enlightenment
650			_aVoltaire
942			_2ddc _cBK