The Enlightenment has traditionally been identified with eighteenth-century France. To also focus upon Britain and America is to redefine the concept of “enlightenment” by recalling the distinctive ideas that helped shape the very different course of history in those countries--ideas that still resonate today. Gertrude Himmelfarb will discuss the ideas generated in all three societies, their similarities and differences, and their role in forming modern Western culture.

Gertrude Himmelfarb is professor emeritus at the Graduate School of the City University of New York and a member of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The recipient of many honorary degrees and fellowships, she has written and edited more than a dozen books, including One Nation, Two Cultures (1999); The Demoralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values (1995); and On Looking into the Abyss: Untimely Thoughts on Culture and Society (1994). Her new book, The Roads to Modernity, will be published by Knopf in August.