Enlightened Colonialism: Civilization Narratives and Imperial Politics in the Age of Reason

This book further qualifies the postcolonial thesis and shows its limits. To reach these goals, it links text analysis and political history on a global comparative scale. Focusing on imperial agents, their narratives of progress, and their political aims and strategies, it asks whether Enlightenment gave birth to a new colonialism between 1760 and 1820.

Has Enlightenment provided the cultural and intellectual origins of modern colonialism? For decades, historians of political thought, phil...