MICHAEL MCKEON is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University–New Brunswick in New Jersey. He is the author of Politics and Poetry in Restoration England, The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740, The Secret History of Domesticity: Public, Private, and the Division of Knowledge, and many articles, as well as the editor of Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach.

"Unparalleled in its range and erudition, McKeon’s far-reaching and boldly synthetic intellectual history challenges critical accounts that abstract the conceptual and methodological innovations of Enlightenment from the moment of their emergence. Essential reading for anyone interested in ongoing debates over the role of the Enlightenment in global modernity." - Lynn Festa (author of Fiction Without Humanity: Person, Animal, Thing in Early Enlightenment Literature and Cult) “Michael McKeon has written a deeply learned history of the English Enlightenment which draws on both literary sources and philosophical and political texts. He finds a series of repeated patterns of thought as he takes us through considerations of tradition, civil and religious liberty, secularization, the economy, and modern systems of gender and sexuality. It is an exhilarating and challenging book.” - Randolph Trumbach (coeditor of A Gay History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Men Since the Middle Ages)

• IntroductionPeriodizing the Enlightenment Understanding Enlightenment Thought Enlightenment Separation and Conflation Experimental Method Quantification Politics(Civil) Society The Public Sphere Capitalist and Enlightenment Universality Imperialism Macro-pastoralismConjectural History Slavery  1 Tradition as Tacit Knowledge Tradition Ideology The Aesthetic  2 Civil and Religious Liberty: A Case Study in Secularization Accommodation Civil SocietyThe Empirical Criterion The Sociology of Group Formation Accommodating God’s Will: Thoughts, Speech, Actions Defining Spheres of Discourse The Three Negative Liberties Secularization  3 Virtual RealityReligion Corporation Polity and Economy Capitalist Universality False Consciousness and Uneven Development The Commodity Form The Trope of the Fetish Parody The Trope of the Invisible Hand Conceptual Abstraction Capitalist and Enlightenment Universality Superstructure and Dialectics Conjectural History Polity and Society The Public Sphere The Two Publics Print Experimental Science Experience and Experiment Instruments: Experimental versus Artful Extending Experiment I: Political Philosophy Extending Experiment II: Beyond ObservablesThe Imagination  4 Gender and Sex, Status and Class From Patriarchalism to Modern Patriarchy From Domestic Economy to Domestic Ideology Separate Spheres? Sex and Sex Consciousness The Two-Sex Model? The Three-Gender System: Conflation I Gender as Culture: Conflation II The Dialectic of Sexuality and Class The Common Labor of Sexuality and Class Sodomy and Aristocracy Types of Masculinity  5 Biography, Fiction, Personal Identity Biography, Fiction, and the Common Biography, Fiction, and the Actual Biography, Fiction, and the Virtual The Self behind Self-FashioningFrom Secret History to Novel The Rise of Personal Identity  6 Historical Method Distance and Proximity Historicizing Empiricism Historical Method: Matching Particularsand Generals Dialectical Opposition I: History as Focalizationsof PerspectiveDialectical Opposition II: History as Momentsof Temporality Dialectical Opposition III: History as Levelsof StructureAcknowledgments Notes  Source Notes Index

MICHAEL MCKEON is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University–New Brunswick in New Jersey. He is the author of Politics and Poetry in Restoration England, The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740, The Secret History of Domesticity: Public, Private, and the Division of Knowledge, and many articles, as well as the editor of Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach.

"Unparalleled in its range and erudition, McKeon’s far-reaching and boldly synthetic intellectual history challenges critical accounts that abstract the conceptual and methodological innovations of Enlightenment from the moment of their emergence. Essential reading for anyone interested in ongoing debates over the role of the Enlightenment in global modernity." - Lynn Festa (author of Fiction Without Humanity: Person, Animal, Thing in Early Enlightenment Literature and Cult) “Michael McKeon has written a deeply learned history of the English Enlightenment which draws on both literary sources and philosophical and political texts. He finds a series of repeated patterns of thought as he takes us through considerations of tradition, civil and religious liberty, secularization, the economy, and modern systems of gender and sexuality. It is an exhilarating and challenging book.” - Randolph Trumbach (coeditor of A Gay History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Men Since the Middle Ages)

• IntroductionPeriodizing the Enlightenment Understanding Enlightenment Thought Enlightenment Separation and Conflation Experimental Method Quantification Politics(Civil) Society The Public Sphere Capitalist and Enlightenment Universality Imperialism Macro-pastoralismConjectural History Slavery  1 Tradition as Tacit Knowledge Tradition Ideology The Aesthetic  2 Civil and Religious Liberty: A Case Study in Secularization Accommodation Civil SocietyThe Empirical Criterion The Sociology of Group Formation Accommodating God’s Will: Thoughts, Speech, Actions Defining Spheres of Discourse The Three Negative Liberties Secularization  3 Virtual RealityReligion Corporation Polity and Economy Capitalist Universality False Consciousness and Uneven Development The Commodity Form The Trope of the Fetish Parody The Trope of the Invisible Hand Conceptual Abstraction Capitalist and Enlightenment Universality Superstructure and Dialectics Conjectural History Polity and Society The Public Sphere The Two Publics Print Experimental Science Experience and Experiment Instruments: Experimental versus Artful Extending Experiment I: Political Philosophy Extending Experiment II: Beyond ObservablesThe Imagination  4 Gender and Sex, Status and Class From Patriarchalism to Modern Patriarchy From Domestic Economy to Domestic Ideology Separate Spheres? Sex and Sex Consciousness The Two-Sex Model? The Three-Gender System: Conflation I Gender as Culture: Conflation II The Dialectic of Sexuality and Class The Common Labor of Sexuality and Class Sodomy and Aristocracy Types of Masculinity  5 Biography, Fiction, Personal Identity Biography, Fiction, and the Common Biography, Fiction, and the Actual Biography, Fiction, and the Virtual The Self behind Self-FashioningFrom Secret History to Novel The Rise of Personal Identity  6 Historical Method Distance and Proximity Historicizing Empiricism Historical Method: Matching Particularsand Generals Dialectical Opposition I: History as Focalizationsof PerspectiveDialectical Opposition II: History as Momentsof Temporality Dialectical Opposition III: History as Levelsof StructureAcknowledgments Notes  Source Notes Index

MICHAEL MCKEON is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University–New Brunswick in New Jersey. He is the author of Politics and Poetry in Restoration England, The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740, The Secret History of Domesticity: Public, Private, and the Division of Knowledge, and many articles, as well as the editor of Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach.

"Unparalleled in its range and erudition, McKeon’s far-reaching and boldly synthetic intellectual history challenges critical accounts that abstract the conceptual and methodological innovations of Enlightenment from the moment of their emergence. Essential reading for anyone interested in ongoing debates over the role of the Enlightenment in global modernity." - Lynn Festa (author of Fiction Without Humanity: Person, Animal, Thing in Early Enlightenment Literature and Cult) “Michael McKeon has written a deeply learned history of the English Enlightenment which draws on both literary sources and philosophical and political texts. He finds a series of repeated patterns of thought as he takes us through considerations of tradition, civil and religious liberty, secularization, the economy, and modern systems of gender and sexuality. It is an exhilarating and challenging book.” - Randolph Trumbach (coeditor of A Gay History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Men Since the Middle Ages)

• IntroductionPeriodizing the Enlightenment Understanding Enlightenment Thought Enlightenment Separation and Conflation Experimental Method Quantification Politics(Civil) Society The Public Sphere Capitalist and Enlightenment Universality Imperialism Macro-pastoralismConjectural History Slavery  1 Tradition as Tacit Knowledge Tradition Ideology The Aesthetic  2 Civil and Religious Liberty: A Case Study in Secularization Accommodation Civil SocietyThe Empirical Criterion The Sociology of Group Formation Accommodating God’s Will: Thoughts, Speech, Actions Defining Spheres of Discourse The Three Negative Liberties Secularization  3 Virtual RealityReligion Corporation Polity and Economy Capitalist Universality False Consciousness and Uneven Development The Commodity Form The Trope of the Fetish Parody The Trope of the Invisible Hand Conceptual Abstraction Capitalist and Enlightenment Universality Superstructure and Dialectics Conjectural History Polity and Society The Public Sphere The Two Publics Print Experimental Science Experience and Experiment Instruments: Experimental versus Artful Extending Experiment I: Political Philosophy Extending Experiment II: Beyond ObservablesThe Imagination  4 Gender and Sex, Status and Class From Patriarchalism to Modern Patriarchy From Domestic Economy to Domestic Ideology Separate Spheres? Sex and Sex Consciousness The Two-Sex Model? The Three-Gender System: Conflation I Gender as Culture: Conflation II The Dialectic of Sexuality and Class The Common Labor of Sexuality and Class Sodomy and Aristocracy Types of Masculinity  5 Biography, Fiction, Personal Identity Biography, Fiction, and the Common Biography, Fiction, and the Actual Biography, Fiction, and the Virtual The Self behind Self-FashioningFrom Secret History to Novel The Rise of Personal Identity  6 Historical Method Distance and Proximity Historicizing Empiricism Historical Method: Matching Particularsand Generals Dialectical Opposition I: History as Focalizationsof PerspectiveDialectical Opposition II: History as Momentsof Temporality Dialectical Opposition III: History as Levelsof StructureAcknowledgments Notes  Source Notes Index