European Civiliization (1648-1945) with John Merriman: 5. The Enlightenment and the Public Sphere (Yale)

European Civilization, 1648-1945 (HIST 202) While the major philosophical projects of the Enlightenment are associated with the names of individual thinkers such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, the cultural transformation in France in the years leading up to the Revolution should also be understood in the context of the public sphere and popular press. Alongside such luminaries as those associated with Diderot’s Encyclopédie were a host of lesser pamphleteers and libellists eager for fame and some