Dark Brilliance: The Age of Reason from Descartes to Peter the Great

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Description

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 period which saw advances in areas such as art, science, philosophy, political theory and economics. However, all this was achieved against a background of extreme turbulence in the form of internal conflicts and international wars. While the 'land of liberty' was beginning to import slaves from Africa.

Focusing on key characters from the seventeenth to the eighteenth centuries, including Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Newton, Descartes, Spinoza, Louis XIV and Charles I, Dark Brilliance is a fascinating and wide-ranging history that explores the human costs of imposing progress and modernity.

Reviews

Lively... Strathern's entertaining cast of often garrulous northerners, their origins ranging from Paris to rainy London, discovered things that made us what we are today... He describes their contributions in clear-sighted and effective prose, making complex ideas instantly intelligible... Full of pleasing anecdotes, and myths are duly dispatched along the way. * The Times on The Other Renaissance *
A thought-provoking re-examination of the great Florentine artists, scientists and business wizards of the Renaissance... Strathern has an engaging habit of dwelling on the close connection in the Florentine cultural sphere between art and money, matters seldom so intimately juxtaposed...His prose glimmers with the spark of rekindled discovery. * Wall Street Journal on The Florentines *

Author Bio

Paul Strathern studied philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. He is a Somerset Maugham Award-winning novelist; author of two series of books - Philosophers in 90 Minutes and The Big Idea: Scientists who Changed the World; and several works of non-fiction, including The Borgias, The Florentines and The Other Renaissance.