The Enlightenment in Crisis: Diderot's Encyclopédie in a Parisian Salon

Set in Paris around 1750, The Enlightenment in Crisis places students amid the intellectual and political tension of the Enlightenment. France is Europe’s cultural powerhouse: Its language, fashions, and luxury goods shape tastes across the continent, and Paris draws artists, writers, and travelers from afar. Yet within this intellectual moment there lie deep contradictions. The monarchy projects strength while burdened by war debts, royal censors struggle to contain new ideas, and most ord...