Revolutions Revisited: Two Faces of the Politics of Enlightenment

In this elegant extended essay, Ralph Lerner concentrates on the politics of enlightenment — the process by which those who sought to set minds free went about their work. Eighteenth-century revolutionaries in America and Europe, Lerner argues, found that a revolution aimed at liberating bodies and minds had somehow to be explained and defended. Lerner first investigates how the makers of revolution sought to improve their public’s aspirations and chances. He pays particular attention to Be...