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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 5 page paper provides an overview of the book, with a focus on the author's primary thesis. The Enlightenment is discussed in historical context. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: RT13_SA225Gay.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
But there was something unique about Americas transformation in that a new nation was being formed. The American Revolution occurred in the midst of the Enlightenment. In a climate of
free floating ideas, the American colonies challenged their master and gained independence. It does seem appropriate that the war was spurred on by this age of discovery. Indeed, it was
this Enlightenment period that appears to be so important to history and one that shaped the creation of the United States of America and set the pace for a new
world to come. Some think it has been unfairly characterized and that rather than calling it a unique period of history, it must be explored in historical context. It was
really, at least according to Peter Gay, a time when two different ideas would emerge. Peter Gay, unlike most who romanticize the Enlightenment, takes a different approach in his analysis,
looking at the phenomenon in the context of the day. What does the Enlightenment mean? What does it mean in respect to what was going on during the period of
time historically? The author approaches the investigation with a focus on the philosophes and the idea that there were really two branches inherent in it; there was fighting between the
two as well. Gay says: "The philosophes experience, I discovered, was a dialectical struggle for autonomy, an attempt to assimilate the two pasts they had inherited--Christian and pagan--to pit them
against one another and thus to secure their independence" (xi). That is quite an observation and rather unique as well. Was the Enlightenment then not much different from what is
occurring today? Today, there does seem to be a war between the religious communities and secular society. Many hot button issues embrace this discrepancy between religion and paganism and
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