Introduction: Enlightenment as revolution?
The revolution in ideas. The state of nature
The triumph of reason
The freedom of thought
The light of experience
Rule Britannia? The widening gap
Imperial rulership
The Scottish enlightenment
Revolutionary Americans. An American enlightenment
Creating the revolution
Self-evident truths
The egalitarian movement
France: rule or ruin? Royal Paris
The Philosophes and the people
The unmaking of a king
Becoming revolutionary
The madness of the factions
Transforming American politics. The life of the nation
The liberty of a person
The happiness of the people
The first transformation?
Britain: the rules of rulership. The inside game
The revolution that wasn't
The fractured debate
Napoleonic rulership. La grande farce
Power: the supreme value
The abdication of the people
Restoration?
Britain: industrializing enlightenment. Ideas as capital
The tyranny of the machine
Property and poverty
The new radicals
France: the crowds of July. The liberal revolt
Tribunes of the people
Republican rivals
The American experiment. We are all republicans
The Democratic majority
Liberty and equality
The new world
Britain: the fire for reform. Strategies of reform
Ideas as weapons
Stumbling toward reform
The dawning of a liberal party
The negative of liberty. People as property
The canker of bondage
The transformation. The liberal triumph
The clash of ideas
A new American enlightenment?