Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World

Studies in European History

by Roy Porter

For generations the traditional focus for those wishing to understand the roots of the modern world has been France on the eve of the Revolution. Porter certainly acknowledges France's importance, but here makes an overwhelming case for consideringBritain the true home of modernity - a country driven by an exuberance, diversity and power of invention comparable only to twentieth-century America. Porter immerses the reader in a society which, recovering from the horrors of the Civil War and decisively reinvigorated by the revolution of 1688, had emerged as something new and extraordinary - a society unlike any other in the world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science, 18th Century, Cultural, British Literature

728 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2000

About the author

Roy's books cover several fields: the history of geology, London, 18th-Century British ideas and society, medicine, madness, quackery, patients and practitioners, literature and art, on which subjects (and others) he published over 200 books are articles.

List of works can be found @ wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Porter )

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was super great, you guys. So here's the question dealt with: when you think of the Enlightenment, what do you think of? Is it "periwigged Parisian poseurs prattling on in their salons"? If so, Roy Porter would LOVE to sit down and have a chat with you about how you are completely wrong. So traditionally, there is a view that the Enlightenment was a unitary movement, one whole phenomenon, centered on one place. As scholars have now shown, there were many different Enlightenments in many different countries- and not all of those countries were in Europe (it apparently seriously took until the late 1960s before somebody decided that maybe the American Revolution dudes should be included). They concentrated on different ideas, expressed themselves differently and took on different social projects at different times- and there was a much wider range of people involved than is typically thought.

Porter contributes to this new conversation on the period by showing thoroughly and once and for all that there was an English Enlightenment. Straight up denying those who find that term "jarring" and out of place, he shows how English thinkers were in fact free to start expressing different and innovative ideas much earlier than French thinkers were, and how French thinkers (in particular Voltaire) took their inspiration from England. He gives a great overview of the English (and Scottish) writers that were publishing theories and essays on a huge array of topics during the 17th and 18th centuries. He does so in bracing, entertaining and challenging fashion, demonstrating a command of the material and a rhetorical style that I think makes it difficult to challenge him on very much at all.

Excellent overview for a general reader, entertaining fun for someone who knows a little bit more. Even if you've got a handle on your Adam Smith, your Newton and your Bacon there are many many other fellows who are worth exploring. I can't believe this book isn't more widely read (though it did win a big prize in the UK)- perhaps because it didn't get great marketing in the US or something? I want a job marketing popular histories because for real it is a shame so many things like this fly under the radar, unnoticed.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since Porter subtitles the book "Britain and the Creation of the Modern World" I guess I expected him to discuss the British influence on the rest of the modern world! He does an excellent job of discussing the enlightenment in Britain but don't expect to get much of a sense of the enlightenment outside of it.

[Katheryn Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally read this for an essay, but was soon enthralled. The Enlightenment is such a fascinating period of time, and the magic of it for me is that there was so much going on in so many different areas. This book wonderfully portrays the Enlightenment from each of these perspectives, meaning that you could (if you wanted) only read the sections which appealed to you the most.

[Josie Pringle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primarily, I learnt a lot from this book and it was very interesting, so I liked it.
In my opinion Roy Porter doesn't write like a traditional historian. Literary devices are ubiquitous throughout the book. This is a blessing and a curse. At times, his analogies, metaphors and descriptions are so marvellous that the ideas they refer to stick in your mind- sometimes I got the urge to ditch my objective of writing concise notes, and instead quote his long beautifully- embellished sentences. Furthermore, in some cases this reiteration of ideas in different forms enhanced my understanding of the points being made, and therefore was useful.
However, at other times, his endless use of snobby vocabulary hindered the text; disturbing the flow of sentences. I'm not opposed to looking up new vocabulary if the words add to the concision and precision of the text, however I believe in some cases Roy Porter was just showing off.
That being said, the chapters are categorised in a clever and useful way and all in all, I really enjoyed the book. I particularly recommend Chapter 12, 'From Good Sense to Sensibility'. Please read!

[Pete Kavanagh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things this book does really well:
1. Breaks down the enlightenment into discrete subject areas
2. Introduces the intellectual big guns and places them in the context from where they arose
3. Adds much more detail to the religious and social background especially the critical importance of the 1649 Act of Toleration and the consequences of the search for "Rational Religion"
4. Brings David Hume to the fore, which is always a good idea

Things this book doesn't do so well
1. Place the 18th Century in a narrative frame, this is a result of the structure of chapters relating to defined areas of change. But the timeline can sometimes be confusing
2. Avoid alliterative abstruseness, this can grate


Overall a worthwhile read, which filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of both the enlightenment and the history of the UK and Ireland.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well documented, closely reasoned, and engagingly written account of 18th-century England's passage from post-feudal to pre-modern conditions; superb.

[Aidan Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many-a lay-man’s mind, and amongst some academics, Britain cannot claim a central role in the intellectual and cultural developments of the late 17th and 18th centuries that has come to called ‘the Enlightenment’ - that is reserved primarily for France. Even if it could, many modern writers, including Michael Foucault and Eric Hobsbawm, disparage the Enlightenment. Roy Porter sets out to set the naysayers wrong, and does so, in my judgment, successfully.

The book’s early chapters provide some fantastic historical pretext, including the Glorious Revolution (1688) and Hanoverian Succession (1714), as well as intellectual precursors to the period such as Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes. It is also here that the influence of John Locke is introduced. His importance being something I was hitherto ignorant of, I was fascinated by the sheer weight of his contribution to the early British Enlightenment. So much so, in fact, Porter calls him the “presiding spirit of the English Enlightenment” (p. 66) and later claims that “if the Enlightenment had a ‘father’, Locke’s paternity claim is better than any other” (p. 481).

Importantly, Porter makes sure to stress the considerable diversity in thinking at the time; there never was a monolithic ‘Enlightenment project’. But he also defends the idea that there were core intellectual threads in Britain during this period that are cohesive enough to justify talk about ‘an Enlightenment’ on the British Isles. Primarily, the developments in science by Isaac Newton, medicine by Thomas Beddoes (and others), religious thought by Samuel Clarke and John Tolland, literature by Jonathan Swift, public morality and manner by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, then later David Hume, and political economy by Adam Smith, form a cohesive and interconnected cultural and intellectual watershed. This not to even mention names like Joseph Priestley, Jeremy Benthem, William Goodwin, Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft whose contributions were great and coalesced around a loose theme, although not always fully cognisant of it at the time.

Porter engages with the Enlightenment-bashers (my term) not directly, but shows respect for the period’s ideals with chapters highlighting the Enlightenment’s “Clearing Away of the [Metaphysical] Rubbish” (Chapter 3), the cultivation of “Culture of Science” (Chapter 6), improvement orientated “Secularising” and “Modernising” (Chapters 9 and 10), and even small improvements in the treatment of women (Chapter 14). Indeed, Porter obviously finds much to admire in the British Enlightenment, as much for their style as for the content of their thought, finding “enlightened minds congenial” (xxi) and more attractive than the Puritans before, or the Victorians after. Yet, he is sure to state their short comings throughout, and although you can’t help but pick up on hints of Porter’s enthusiasm for some Enlightenment figures, the book is not intended as a work of advocacy.

Central to Porter’s thesis, and much to the book’s advantage, is a more holistic view of the period’s developments. Enlightenment was not something that happened in the minds of ‘little flock of philosophes’ but a change on level of society on nearly every level. Porter turns our attention to “the ferment of new thinking amongst the reading public at large, stimulated via newspapers, novels, prints and even pornography - the Enlightenment should be viewed not as a canon of classics but as living language, a revolution in mood, a blaze of slogans, delivering the shock of the new.”

Thus, aside from the lofty intellectual material, Porter travels through the developments in printing, medicine, infrastructure, manners, leisure, science, as well as views of animals and the natural world, religion, gender, sex and class. It truly is an erudite and focused tour de force of late-seventeenth and eighteenth century British history, made all the better by Porter’s fantastic command of descriptive language and narrative.

In the end, Porter’s Enlightenment signals a strong contribution to the historical revisionism that Porter himself has led to get Britain on the Enlightenment map. The book also provides a witty, compelling, eloquent and academically rigorous introduction to the topic – attributes I’m sure many of the subjects of the book would find commendable.

[Carlton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Providing an overview of the intellectual discoveries of this exciting period of British history, Roy Porter’s book is dense and benefits from an existing knowledge of the history he wishes to tell. Although an understanding of the changes to religious thought during the period are impotence in understanding why cultural development was different from most of the continent, I unfortunately did not find this engaging.

Starts with consideration of whether there was a British Enlightenment, when it was less theoretical than Voltaire/Rousseau in France. Highlighting that the British Enlightenment started earlier, as a consequence of the political settlement of 1688 which reduced the power of crown and church, and was more pragmatic and empirical, rather than revolutionary.
Luck and logic meant that with George I’s succession in 1714, ...the personal powers of the Crown and the pretensions of High-flying bishops were curbed in what proved to be an unshakable commitment to the quadruple alliance of freedom, Protestantism, patriotism and prosperity. (Page 30)
Chapter 3, Clearing away the rubbish, discusses Hobbes and Locke as prime philosophers of the British Enlightenment, championing Empiricism as the basis upon which knowledge should be based.
Print Culture emphasising the importance of the lack of censorship, which had been reintroduced at the Reformation (1660 with return of Charles II) lapsing after the Glorious Revolution (1688 with William III) with the Licensing Act lapsing in 1695. This made British print culture, especially newspapers, very different from the continent, where censorship by Crown and Church was far more widespread.

[Haydn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not your typical history book chronology, more of a discussion of the major characters and themes in 1600-1800 England. Which I enjoyed. Porter also hints at why this type of environment led to the "Enlightenment" of this period, although this is something I would like to have seen more of.

Well-written. Flowed nicely with the correct amount of words dedicated to each section.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read of 18rth century England and Scotland, but I suspect much of what is described would not have been mainstream at the time. Things often look obvious with hindsight, whereas at the time it would have been a fringe activity.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Josh Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely dazzling. How did he do it!

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. A fascinating insight into a time that gave us thought processes on another level.

[Matthew Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The british education left me with a sizeable gap between the restoration and Pitt’s income tax. A wonderful book to bridge and indeed propose an answer to “from where did the modern arise.”

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt I had received an education about ideas in the 18th century. I read this pencil in hand. Not a very easy read but sparkling with insights into history.

[Burcu]

This is a very good study on Enlightenment and Britain. It's general and specific enough at the same time and has a great Bibliography and Notes section (in fact almost 1/3 of the book is that). It lays out the various aspects of modernity and Enlightenment, whether it's belief, science or economy, in a way that creates a good overall picture. It also provides details and information for those who'd like to follow up on any of the aspects through further research. In short, a good historical analysis.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dang interesting. He uses a heck of a lot of alliteration, though.

[Jackson Cyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

Porter's thesis is that the British Enlightenment, long ignored in favor of its continental counterpart, was actually a period that very powerfully influenced our modern conceptions of public space, free exchange of ideas etc. Also it was in Britain that inspired continental giants such as Voltaire to call for a greater secularization of government, of a more critical approach to dogma etc when they returned to Europe. Written with a great deal of panache and wit, this is a wonderful book.