The Enlightenment : A Very Short Introduction (2015) by John Robertson is an introduction to various Enlightenment thinkers and the influence they have had and how their contribution has been seen since The Enlightenment.
Robertson is a professor of the history of Political Thought at Oxford so he’s well placed to write a book as ambitious as this that is so short. Kant, Hume, Smith, Rousseau and the other major enlightenment figures all have their impact and work described.
The book also discusses how The Enlightenment has been seen since by various philosophers and historians.
The book shows the diversity of thought of the major Enlightenment figures and inadvertently that Steven Pinker’s thesis that it is some central idea from the Enlightenment that has driven current prosperity is dubious. This is not to say modernity isn’t prosperous, just that Pinker’s description of The Enlightenment as being a secular, atheist movement toward reason is not something that many of the major Enlightenment figures would have agreed with.
The book made me want to read more of the works of major Enlightenment figures and get more of an understanding of them. It was worth reading for me to get some overview of what is meant when people talk about The Enlightenment.
ReviewSien 