Correll, Mark R. “A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy.” Fides et Historia 43, no. 1 (December 1, 2011): 81–84.
Abstract: The Enlightenment has fallen on hard times as an ideological force for change in history. When it is not simply ignored in the developments of early modern Europe, it is described as a product of social forces. In this sharply written essay, A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy, Jonathan Israel sets out an ambitious project to restore the Enlightenment as the central focus for the entire historiography of the eighteenth century and the French Revolution. This work functions as an introduction to his much larger three volume set published by the Oxford University Press. This book is meant for a broader audience than his other works, it has a sharply polemical tone, and his argument does not digress into fine detail typical of a scholarly volume. Nevertheless, it is a powerfully effective challenge to early modern historiography.
