What was the Enlightenment? Was it a unified body of thought generated by an established canon of "great thinkers", or were there many areas of contradiction and divergence? How far-reaching were its critiques intended to be? Was it a revolutionary body of thought, or was it merely the catalyst for a revolutionary age? Did it mean the same for men and for women, for rich and poor, for European and non-European? In this important new textbook Dorinda Outram sets the major debates of the period against broader social changes. This unique and accessible synthesis of scholarship on the "Enlightenment" will be invaluable for any student of eighteenth-century history.