Introducing the Enlightenment: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides) Paperback – 2 Sept. 2010

I am usually not keen on such cartoon-like drawing but I must say it is a wonderful little guide to a fascinating period. Within a double page for each of the entries, in a glance you can get a real global view/idea of the topics covered. Such a guide definitively helps memorizing actors of the period as well as the various concepts involved. A very clever enlightened guide.

Ive not read Stephen hawking yet along with time,freud,and media studies but the ones ive read are very good.

A bit haphazard in cohesion but a beginners summary of an important era of humanity. A must read for students of human history

As good as it gets. No politician, banker or social worker should be without it. The 'Les Miserable' music was good but has anyone read E.J. Hobsbawn on the French Revolution?

Not bad. The book covers all the main moments and people which make up "The Enlightenment".Only criticism is the graphics do take up a lot of room on some pages, and they don't really add much to the book. They just seem to take up space.

Excellent summary

I bought this to mug up before a week-end I knew would include it (in all its manifestations) at some point; not wanting to appear totally vacant, I thought it would be idea. Tate Britain had a "two for the price of one" offer on a tall, well-stacked revolving tempter, so I selected the Enlightenment followed by Romanticism. Both were secreted up to the counter, paid for quickly and slipped promptly into the Billingham. (One does not want to be seen with "Guides to ... when one should be reading Hampson or O'Hara.)Every page is a wealth of illustrative material, exceptionally well-drawn sketches to accompany the detailed text: Voltaire, Rousseau, John Locke, Newton, Paine, Jefferson and so many others. They are all there."The Enlightenment was an intellectual current that galvanised Europe during the course of the 18th Century. Centred in Paris." Sentence one gets straight to the point.No puns about enlightenment, shedding light, and so on. Very informative, interesting and enjoyable book written in the unusual style of the series.

I have three Graphic Guides. The one on fractals is good, the subject is appropriate for a "graphic guide" because the illustrations complement the text admirably. The one on Camus is quite informative because it is possible to present his life and the plots of some of his major works in comic-book format. The same does not apply to the Graphic Guide on The Enlightment, unfortunately. The visual aspect adds very little, if anything, to the description, and at times it is even laughably superfluous, e.g. two drawings of the philosopher John Locke - on one page with the subtitle "with a wig" and on the next page with the subtitle "without his wig".Apart from that, the text is badly-written and contains inaccuracies. For example:- the first five pages explain that France was the main centre of the Enlightenment, then the next six or seven pages explain that Britain and the Dutch Republic were the main centres of the Enlightenment!- on the page on William and Mary and the "Glorious Revolution", it is explained that the English parliament invited William to come to England and depose King James. This is incorrect. Seven "prominent Englishmen" invited William to come to England for that purpose. Also, on the same page, according to the author, the "Glorious Revolution" was "glorious" because it was bloodless. I thought it was "glorious" because of the important changes that came as a result of it, e.g. flight of King James, the creation of a constitutional monarchy in England?