In Defence of the Enlightenment

Although our liberal democracies are the offspring of the Enlightenment, they also illustrate the ways in which its ideas can be distorted and perverted. People living in these democracies today are often baffled by a host of phenomena which they don't know how to judge: globalisation and media omnipotence, state-sponsored torture and lies, moralism and the right of intervention, the domination of economics and the triumph of technology. Is it possible to distinguish between the Enlightenment's legitimate and illegitimate heirs? We cannot learn lessons from the past unless we know how to relate them to the present. In this brilliant and concise book, internationally renowned historian Tzvetan Todorov shows that what remains relevant to us today of the 18th-century debates is their spirit, as expressed in a number of crucial principles and values. Praise for Tzvetan Todorov: 'Hope and Memory is a book with wisdom on every page. If you want to understand the 20th century and be forewarned against the 21st, you must read it.' - John Gray, Independent 'Graceful and gigantic ... A fascinating tour through the subtlety, integrity, and brute honesty of Todorov's thought.' - New York Times Book Review 'Todorov invigorates the debate over morality with rigor and grace, Aristotelian fineness, fluid prose, and his own virtues of compassion, humility, and realism.' - Washington Post