The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and America Realized the Enlightenment

Henry Steele Commager

Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1977 - History - 342 pages

Contents

• The Enlightenment as an Age of Discovery: 1
• The Enlightenment Spreads to America: 15
• The Enlightenment Unveils a New World of Nature: 40

About the author

Henry Steele Commager was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 25, 1902. He was educated at the University of Chicago. He taught history at New York University, Columbia University, and Amherst College. In addition to lecturing at many universities throughout the world, he was Harmsworth Professor at Oxford University and Pitt Professor at Cambridge University, where he was also an honorary fellow at Peterhouse College. His writings range widely over such topics as education, the Civil War, civil liberties, the Enlightenment, and immigration. Many of his books reflect his keen interest in constitutional history and civil liberties. He was also a documentarian, who has said to consider Documents of American History (1934), the 1988 edition of which he coedited with Milton Cantor, to be his most significant contribution. He died on March 2, 1998.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and America Realized the Enlightenment; ACLS Humanities E-Book; History e-book project
• Author: Henry Steele Commager
• Publisher: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1977
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Sep 16, 2008
• ISBN: 0385116721, 9780385116725
• Length: 342 pages
• Subjects: History / Modern / 18th Century; History / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775)