Book review: The Age Of Genius: The Seventeenth Century And The Birth Of The Modern Mind by AC Grayling
ByDavid Wilcock
Philosopher AC Grayling explores a century of tumult and turmoil which, he argues, gave birth to modern thought in this weighty, yet readable work.
While British 17th century history lessons barely move past our Civil War, the Restoration and the Great Plague/Fire of London, Grayling looks at the wider maelstrom of religious warfare and change that absorbed much of Europe.
He argues that, at the end of the 1600s, the shackles of religion, which had held back education, science and philosophy for so long had been loosened to allow new ideas to emerge.
This gave birth to advances in areas from physics to politics and laid the foundations for the subsequent Age of Enlightenment, which in turn led to where we are today.
It may not leap into the holiday book bag, but Grayling’s occasionally brash arguments are compelling in what is a fascinating look at where we come from.
Published by Bloomsbury
Book review: The Age Of Genius: The Seventeenth Century And The Birth Of The Modern Mind by AC Grayling
