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Wicked Company

Freethinkers and Friendship in pre-Revolutionary Paris

Philipp Blom

$36.99

Paperback

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English
Phoenix
08 May 2012
From the 1750s to the 1770s, the Paris salon of Baron d'Holbach was an epicenter of debate, intellectual daring and revolutionary ideas, uniting around one table vivid personalities from Denis Diderot, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, the radical ex-priest Guillaume Raynal, the Italian Count Beccaria and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who later turned against his friends.

It was a moment of astonishing racialism in European thought, so uncompromising and bold that it was viciously opposed by rival philosophers such as Voltaire and the turncoat Rousseau and finally suppressed by Robespierre and his Revolutionary henchmen.

IN WICKED COMPANY, acclaimed historian Philipp Blom retraces the fortunes and characters of this exceptional group of friends and brings to life their startling ideas, largely forgotten by historians. Brilliant minds full of wit, courage and humanity, their thinking created a different and radical French Enlightenment based on atheism, passion, empathy and a compellingly insightful perspective on society. Their ideas force us to confront the debates about our own society and its future with new eyes.

By:  
Imprint:   Phoenix
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 137mm,  Width: 217mm,  Spine: 26mm
Weight:   306g
ISBN:   9781780220109
ISBN 10:   1780220103
Pages:   384
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Philipp Blom was born in Hamburg and trained as an historian in Vienna and Oxford. He is the author of TO HAVE AND TO HOLD a history of collectors and collecting and ENCYCLOPEDIA. He writes regularly for journals and newspapers in Europe and the United States. He lives in Vienna.

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