10. THE END OF ENLIGHTENMENT: EMPIRE, COMMERCE, CRISIS

The Enlightenment is popularly seen as the Age of Reason, a key moment in human history when ideals such as freedom, progress, natural rights and constitutional government prevailed. In this radical re-evaluation, historian Richard Whatmore, Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Co-Director of the Institute of Intellectual History, argues that the Enlightenment was a profound failure for many. He traces the changing perspectives of economists, philosophers, politicians and polemicists, including figures as intellectually diverse as David Hume, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke and Mary Wollstonecraft who strived to replace superstition with reason, but witnessed instead terror and revolution, corruption, gross commercial excess and the continued growth of violent colonialism. The author will be in conversation with Ali Ansari, Professor of Iranian History and Founding Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews.