Enlightenment and Empire

Reflecting on the Enlightenment, Henry Steele Commager began The Empire of Reason by noting the paradox of societies that “preached liberty and practiced slavery.” The movement differed across Europe and America and unfolded amid war, slavery, and empire. Any modern history of the Enlightenment must confront this tension. A radical rethinking of the Enlightenment, this book reveals how the age of reason coexisted with empire, slavery and deep inequality. While Enlightenment ideals promised liberty and progress, they were largely confined to a narrow elite and often undermined by the very thinkers who promoted them. The modern world, this book argues, was forged not by Enlightenment alone but through its profound contradictions.