The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers

“Will remain a classic—a beautifully finished literary product.”—Charles A. Beard, American Historical Review

“Carl L. Becker (1873–1945) was one of the Progressive historians who revolutionized the teaching of history in America. . . . We should be grateful for what the book reveals about the attitudes of Progressive historians in the 1930s even more than for what it says about the Enlightenment. . . . Becker makes a convincing case.”—D. E. Richardson, Sewanee Review

“An enduring landmark in the historiography of the Enlightenment. For three generations its eloquence of style and elegance of concept have provoked learning and creative criticism. Perhaps the chief indication of its merit is the high quality and intellectual significance of the replies and counterarguments it has called forth.”—Frank M. Turner, Yale University

“The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers remains one of the most distinctive American contributions to the historical literature on the Enlightenment. . . . [It] is likely to beguile and provoke readers for a long time to come.”—Johnson Kent Wright, from the Foreword