A sweeping history of the Age of Reason which shows how although it was a time of progress in
many areas it was also an era of brutality and intolerance by the author of The Borgias and
The Florentines . During the 1600s between the end of the Renaissance and the start of the
Enlightenment Europe lived through an era known as the Age of Reason. This was a revolutionary
period which saw great advances in areas such as art science philosophy political theory and
economics. However all this was accomplished against a background of extreme political
turbulence and irrational behaviour on a continental scale in the form of internal conflicts
and international wars. Indeed the Age of Reason itself was born at the same time as the
Thirty Years' War which would devastate central Europe to an extent that would not be seen
again until the twentieth century. The period also saw the development of European empires
across world and a lucrative new transatlantic commerce began which brought transformative
riches to western European society. However there was a dark underside to this brilliant
wealth: it was dependent upon mass slavery. By exploring all the key events and bringing to
life some of the most influential characters of the era including Caravaggio Rembrandt
Newton Descartes Spinoza Louis XIV and Charles I Paul Strathern tells the story of this
paradoxical age while also counting the human cost of imposing the progress and modernity upon
which the Western world was built.
