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Events

The Radical Enlightenment

General Programming

dateMarch 1, 2005 timeTuesday, 9:00am EST location Second Floor Common Room, Columbia University, The Heyman Center
Notes
  • Free and open to the public
  • No registration necessary
  • Photo ID required for entry

What are the prospects for radical thought in our own times? Some of the most eminent and interesting historians in the world come to the Heyman Center for the Humanities on March 1 for a daylong conference, to focus on some of the radical and dissenting voices of the Enlightenment in both Europe and America. At this conference, Joyce Appleby, Eric Foner, Jonathan Israel, Margaret Jacob, Phyllis Mack, and Deborah Valenze discuss subjects ranging from the relation between science, religion and politics to Jefferson's radicalism, and lessons will also be drawn for the prospect of radical thought and politics for our own times by tracing the roots of the radical tradition in the western world. That the range of ideas and innovations that emerged in Europe and in America over this period, which we have come to label the "Enlightenment," was far more varied than either that single label or the standard scholarship on the subject might suggest is made vibrantly clear.

Program

time9:00am - 9:30am EDT

Light Breakfast

time9:30am - 12:45pm EDT

1st Panel
The Radical Enlightenment: A Heavenly City With Many Mansions

Margaret C. Jacob

Professor of History

University of California, Los Angeles

The Socio-Cultural Structure of The Radical Enlightenment

Jonathan Israel

Professor of Modern European History

School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study

time12:45pm - 1:45pm EDT

Lunch

time1:45pm - 3:45pm EDT

2nd Panel
Another Look at American Radicalism

Joyce Appleby

Professor Emerita

University of California, Los Angeles

Commentator

Eric Foner

DeWitt Clinton Professor of History

Columbia University

time3:45pm - 4:00pm EDT

Coffee Break

time4:00pm - 6:00pm EDT

3rd Panel
Agency and the Unconsious: Spiritual Dreams in 18th Century Britian

Phyllis Mack

Professor of History

Rutgers University

Commentator

Deborah Valenze

Professor of History

Barnard College

Participants
  • Margaret C. Jacob Professor of History University of California, Los Angeles
  • Jonathan Israel Professor of Modern European History School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study
  • Joyce Appleby Professor Emerita University of California, Los Angeles
  • Eric Foner DeWitt Clinton Professor of History Columbia University
  • Phyllis Mack Professor of History Rutgers University
  • Deborah Valenze Professor of History Barnard College