Dark Brilliance: The Age of Reason from Descartes to Peter the Great

by Paul Strathern

Between the end of the Renaissance and the start of the Enlightenment, Europe lived through an era known as the Age of Reason. This was a period which saw advances in areas such as art, science, philosophy, political theory and economics. However, all this was achieved against a background of extreme turbulence in the form of internal conflicts and international wars. While the 'land of liberty' was beginning to import slaves from Africa. Focusing on key characters from the seventeenth to the eighteenth centuries, including Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Newton, Descartes, Spinoza, Louis XIV and Charles I, Dark Brilliance is a fascinating and wide-ranging history that explores the human costs of imposing progress and modernity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science, European History, Biography, Art

506 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2024

About the author

Paul Strathern (born 1940) is a English writer and academic. He was born in London, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, after which he served in the Merchant Navy over a period of two years. He then lived on a Greek island. In 1966 he travelled overland to India and the Himalayas. His novel A Season in Abyssinia won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1972.

Besides five novels, he has also written numerous books on science, philosophy, history, literature, medicine and economics.

Reviews

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something strange happened while reading Dark Brilliance by Paul Strathern. He completely whiffs on his thesis statement, but I really didn't mind. Allow me to explain.

Strathern is writing about the Age of Reason/Enlightenment. He seems to be out to tell the reader about how this era where massive accomplishments in art, government, economics, literature, etc. also came with big upheaval and conflict.

In reality, the book reads like chapter long vignettes on specific people or advances. Yes, Strathern does talk about the dark side, but it feels like he is just giving background about the world where these advances are happening. Honestly, I missed it half the time. Generally, not hitting your thesis is the death knell for a book. However, these are really fun and interesting vignettes! They are not all created equal, though. Strathern's love for art comes through the strongest. You can feel his enthusiasm when discussing Rembrandt or Caravaggio. The other chapters on different subjects aren't bad by any stretch, but you can tell the difference.

In the end, if you want a fun book with a look at various people from the Enlightenment without getting too bogged down in details, then this is for you. Enjoy!

(This book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.)

[Rhonda Mazilauskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

There a some interesting facts to be discovered. For example, did yiu know that Grandfather clocks were first made in a casket? Something to do with keeping out the air. Overall, I enjoyed listening to it and have started "The Other Renaissance" by Paul Strathern.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars;

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. Tons of information. Loved that Sor Juana Ines was included.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty interesting and very readable bit of pop history. Strathern earlier wrote a book on "The Other Renaissance" (the Renaissance in northern Europe) and here looks to continue the tale in what he calls The Age of Reason. This is the 1600s, which he says predates The Enlightenment.

Let's pause there for a second, because I've always heard of the Age of Reason being used interchangably with the Enlightenment. Hunting around a little bit, I don't see much justification for his decision to term the Age of Reason something other than the Enlightenment. This is simultaneously a major and minor problem. Major in that - wow, the book's entire organizing concept seems to be an error born out of ignorance. Minor in that -- look, he's just looking for a phrase to embody the 1600s, which is really what he cares about. And he generally seems to know his 1600s.

That said, it's at it's worst early on, as the first chapter discusses the Thirty Years War and this isn't his strong point. When he discusses the depopulation of parts of Germany, you have to pay really close attention. He never says that 60% of the people died in some regions, but if you aren't paying close attention, you might think that. He makes it seem like the war ended due to overall worn down inertia instead of the Hapsburgs increasingly battered by the French-led opposition.

Once we get past that, the book improves markedly. It primarily focuses on the intellectual and artistic achievements of the day, with a main focus on biographical overviews of the leading thinkers and creators. This makes up the overwhelming majority of the book, and it makes quite a nice read.

Here are some of the various nuggets from the book. Galileo said that mathematics are the language the universe is written with. Inductive reasoning is generalizations drawn from a large quantity of repeated experiments (Bacon championed this). and deductive reasonsing was more about mathematical theorems. Torricelli invented the barometer. Hoygens made a better telescope and the lenses for it. An ancient Greek named Ctesibius made a water clock, and it wasn't really bested until Hoygens made a pendelum clock. He also theorized that light was a wave whereas Newton had it as a particle.

Miguel Cervantes wrote his masterwork. (Note: Strathern talks Cervantes but not Shakespeare even though they were alive at the same time - Cervantes was actually the elder of the two). Strathern covers early markets, joint stock companies, "shorting", and the tulip bubble that burst in Febuary 1637. Dutch art was for secular middle class and gave us Rebens, Rembrant, and Vermeer. Moliere wrote his comedies and Jean Racine his dramas. Catherine d'Medici helped make modern French cuisine when she came north from Italy. Also, champaign gained popularity at this time.

John Milton sounds like his era's version of a Rand-ian libertarian. Robert Hooke figured the law for a spring's elasticity, made the first notable microscope, and decided that fossils are older then 6000 years old. Robert Boyle became the Father of Chemistry and was also into alchemy. He defined an element as something that couldn't be broken down into a more basic chemical form. London got hit by the plague and then a fire. Edmund Halley had his comet.

Van Leeowenhoet made a much better microscope and became the first to see bacteria and single-celled protozoan. It turns out there's life even in a drop of water. (Hooke's microscope just gave a more in-depth view of what we could already see. Leeowenhoet showed us things too small to see otherwise). The Dutch explored Australia and New Zealand. There's the story of the bonkers/hellish mutiny and mass murder that I read about once earlier. Marquette and Jolliet (he spelled the name right!) come here.

Castiglione wrote "The Book of the Courtier" about how one should act. Italy popularizes ballet, operaa, chamber music, and castrated male singers (!) and those all spread across the continent. Antonio Stradivari made his violins. Monteverdi was an excellent composer. We get the story of Queen Christina of Sweden. Spinoza had a rational view of the univers causing him to be accused of athiesm. It's more than he thought the universe itself was God.

We get the ideas of Hobbes, and of Locke. The Turks put Vienna under siege but are turned back. Coffee is left behind. Russia begins westernization under Peter the Great and his reforms, travel, and construction of St. Petersburg.

Pascal invents an early cash register, and creates his triangle to help determine probability. John Graunt is the father of modern statistics. Bernard Mondeville wrote "The Fable of Bees" in which he argues for acting in one's self interest, instead of any Puritanical moral code. Johann Beher believes that extended credit solves so many problems. Jean-Baptist Colbert helped run France's finances.

Liebniz is the embodiment of logic. Newton had a rough life, terrible social skills, but was also a wing-dinger of scientist. (Though he was also a totally paranoid jackwagon to boot).

There's a lot here. But there are times I don't trust it given the early issues. It's a largely solid if not perfect piece of pop history.

[Jason Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sets out to be a history of the enlightenment period showing how reason,progress, existed against the backdrop of unreason. Unreason is never clearly defined but becomes war, religious tumult, plague , slavery and backwards knowledge as required .
So firstly the case is made to an extent but there’s nothing in that inherent contradiction that isn’t true of all eras of history, though specifics obviously differ .The book Covers much ground that is important and fascinating - as part of the historical background we discover is the digression between abstract reason and empirical science, and there is good clear material on the social transition to constitutional monarchy, capitalism, greater literacy etc. as well as shifting power balances and the influence of all of this on thought .
But it works in snapshots . There are excellent biographies but key enlightenment figures such as Voltaire , Diderot and Rousseau and the Scottish enlightenment are scant or absent . Though i always enjoy being introduced to events, writers or thinkers I didn’t, or barely, know. There is no cogent sense of chronology which is key in a history of ideas as much as it is with events .
But still a four star book just for being so interesting throughout and achieving excellent summary of a vast canvas .

[RichVT · Rating 4 out of 5]

This nonfiction by Peter Strathern is read best like a series of unconnected essays highlighting individuals who were major contributors to the 1600 ‘s, the Age of Reason”. Each essay is fascinating and brings to life this important period in Europe/Western thinking and practice. Philosophy, science, mathematics, visual art, music , science all underwent profound changes. Each essay contains interesting “ explainoids” like how the shape of the croissant was inspired by the celebration of the victory of the Holy Roman Empire over the Ottomans whose symbol was a crescent. What does not work so well is the attempt to characterize the period as a dynamic of of reason and “unreason” - unreason is too loosely defined to be more than a catch all of when things go bad. Overall a well written fascinating read.
I may have missed something but the Kindle version is problematic in that the illustrations are at the end and not linked in any obvious way to where they occur in the text. I found it easier to just go to internet images. However, it is hard to find the right map this way and the book suffered by a dearth of maps.

[H Wesselius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but inconsistent. He uses biographies to convey a theme for each chapter but some work better than others. Biographies are great for creating focus while giving the reader a general impression of the era however having multiple biographies for a book or even chapter ruins the effect one biography creates and you're now left with a lack of focus.

It may have been better to focus on less people and at the same time spend more time on themes for the time period. In that way, he may have delivered on how the irrational (eg slave trade) sometimes underlays the age of reason; an idea he hints but doesn't deliver.

A similar problem is evident in his conclusion where he seems more interested in the present rather than summarising the information given and re-emphasing any themes the time period gives us.

[_scentlessapprenticeX]

DNF’d on page 19. The author’s belief that the Westphalia treaty had an enormous impact on modern global politics beyond getting a bunch of warring Europeans together was so greatly exaggerated to the point it annoyed me. Mostly because the author did not cite any academic sources to prove this claim, other than a quote from Henry Kissinger, which he again did not list a source for. It was also placed at the end of a 2 or so page wax poetic monologue about the “world altering” effects of the treaty that just read could have been half a paragraph when you remove the felating. And as if Henry Kissinger was the end all be all authority on the subject…. F*ck Henry Kissinger

[David Findlay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and informative

whilst always being entertaining and informative this good book isn't perhaps the author's best. It follows the style, and period, of his previous book, The Other Renaissance, but the succession of potted biographies, many of them fascinating, so seem to rather get in the way of the overall thesis. I did note a couple of errors in the kindle edition, one directional and one of timescales which question the editing process. Still, enjoyable and worth reading.

[gerard brangan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Namedropping on a grand scale in this thoroughly enjoyable and very informative account of the life and times of the 17th century! Accessible in its structure and writing style and the author skillfully draws us towards the pertinent and sometimes uncomfortable questions of our own time and of the future. One abiding motif from the book is the realisation that scientific advances have always been founded on the prior positions of our forefathers: thus we may remain optimistic for the ages to come.

[Leah Bigwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting book, filled with a huge amount of cool information about key figures of the 17th century. Sometimes though the link between all of the facts felt a little unclear and led all of the information feeling slightly random and overwhelming. Really enjoyed though the detail that it went into and learnt a huge amount!

[Laura Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t get me wrong, I love the 17th century. Honestly, it’s my favorite century. But this book didn’t seem to offer any wider interpretation of the period (other than just referring to it as the Age of Reason and Unreason — and frankly, you could say that about a lot of centuries), instead just offering a series of biographical vignettes about various scientific, artistic, and political figures.

[Roland M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Paul and Jonathan the person reading it. Although they seems to have lost a bit of their sense of irony and energy compared to previous books they collaborated upon. That’s why I didn’t give the full mark.

Ps: the non-binary reference to Christina, Queen of Sweden, was also ridiculous.

[Melissa Ramon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit overwhelming and sprawling in scope.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was just the right level of detail, had some nice color plates, and covered major philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers.

[Calvin Campany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading in schools.

[Podge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not at all sure of the connect of the title to the subject matter....brilliance for sure but Dark? Why dark the matter discussed is the brilliance of these amazing people from the 16th Century onwards who in various fields art,science,philosophy, politics and the military progress our view of the world.
The book is a great introductory text on the era but the Epilogue chapter is a bit of a strange end when the author relates this to the modern day and the issue of fusion.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good but dense book. History isn't my typical reading genre.

[Ini · Rating 3 out of 5]

lotssss of info but rlly interesting

[Joseph Selmont · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid survey of the ideas, politics, economics, and characters of the Age of Reason.