"America's founders intended to liberate us not just from one king but from the ghostly tyrrany of supernatural religion. Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart brilliantly tracks the ancient, pagan, and continental ideas from which America's revolut…
"Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart pursues a genealogy of the philosophical ideas from which America's revolutionaries drew their inspiration, all ... researched and documented and enlivened with storytelling ... Along the way, he uncovers the t…
Discusses how America's revolutionaries--including Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine and Ethan Allen--were inspired by ideas that were ancient and pagan in nature, including the work of Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius and Dutch heretic Benedict de Spinoza.
[Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz] were at the center of the intense religious, political, and personal battles that gave birth to the modern age. Both put their faith in the guidance of reason. Yet one was a hermit with many friends; the other, a socialite no one tr…
Philosophy in the late seventeenth century was a dangerous business. No careerist could afford to side with the reclusive philosopher and "atheist Jew" Spinoza. Yet the ambitious young genius Leibniz became obsessed with Spinoza's writings, wrote him clandestine letters, and ult…
Philosophy in the late seventeenth century was a dangerous business. No careerist could afford to side with the reclusive philosopher and "atheist Jew" Spinoza. Yet the ambitious young genius Leibniz became obsessed with Spinoza's writings, wrote him clandestine letters, and ult…