For those of you able to get away during Spring Break, welcome back and hope you had a restful break!
After a 2 week break for Exams and Spring Break, I’m anxious to return to writing about some nifty works in the Reference Collection that you might not know about.
This week, the focus is on the 4 volume Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, Alan Charles Kors, editor, shelved at Ref B 802 .E53 2003.
The editors define the period of the Enlightenment as “a set of tendencies and developments of European culture from the 1670s to the early 19th century, including the American outposts of that culture.” Highlighting the “increasingly critical attitutde toward inherited authority in a … variety of spheres” (preface), this book touches on most every academic discipline. Following the intellectual revolution of the 17th century, new scientific methods were extended to cultural and social phenomena. It’s a fascinating time period, creating many concepts and structures we now find matter-of-fact, but at the time, were revolutionary.
Organizing alphabetically by subject, this encyclopedia features almost 700 entries covering major subjects, such as Chemistry, Philosophy and Reason as well as concepts such as Citizenship, Colonialism and Literacy.
Also included is a Topical Outline of Articles at the beginning of the book, which pulls the information together in a different form: under Demography, subjects such as Agriculture, Death, and Poverty are suggested for review. Each article concludes with cross-references to other pertinent entries.
This is a great work, a snapshot of a time of revolution - in cities and in minds and in politics and in the sciences.
What I learned: The idea and even the term “biography” is a distinctly 18th century concept. Read the section on p.153 of v.1 as it traces biographies as a literary form from Samuel Johnson and why it never quite caught on in France.
Until next week - Kelly
