Darrin M. McMahon

A surprisingly relevant intellectual history of an often-ignored group: the writers who opposed famous Enlightenment philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. McMahon convincingly argues that rather than ignoring these Counter-Enlightenment thinkers, or seeing them as relic of a backward past, they are best seen as shockingly modern. And indeed, his survey of the writings of a host of lesser-known (but prolific) 18th and 19th Century writers shows how the arguments these men and women crafted to oppose the philosophes have surprising resonance right down to present-day politics.… (més)