The Age of Voltaire: A History of Civilization in Western Europe from 1715 to 1756, with Special Emphasis on the Conflict between Religion and Philosophy (The Story of Civilization IX)

The Age of Voltaire, the ninth volume of The Story of Civilization, is an in-depth examination of France and England in the first half of the eighteenth century. In this masterful work, listeners will encounter the English ideas that inspired the Enlightenment in France; the salons of Paris, where the wits and thinkers of all Europe gathered to exchange ideas; the philosophes-- intellectuals and artists who consulted with kings and queens; Voltaire himself, the incarnation of the Enlightenment; Mme. Pompadour, who seduced Louis XV and through him influenced French policy; the Augustan Age in English literature; and the growing parasitism of the aristocracy and rising power of the commercial class.