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Enlightenment
About: Enlightenment is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6845 publications have been published within this topic receiving 116832 citations.
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TL;DR: In the heated debates preceding the telecast, however, "Holocaust" was condemned by critics of all political camps as a cheap popularization of complex historical processes which could not possible help the Germans come to terms with their recent past.
Abstract: Since it was produced for a US audience, the American tv series "Holocaust" had a totally unanticipated and unintended impact in West Germany. Commentary following the showing there hailed it as the media event of the decade. In the heated debates preceding the telecast, however, "Holocaust" was condemned by critics of all political camps as a cheap popularization of complex historical processes which could not possible help the Germans come to terms with their recent past. The tremendous emotional impact of the series, which went far beyond that of any of the earlier film, tv and theater productions on the same subject matter, led a number of critics to change their mind and certainly vindicated those few who had argued in favor of telecasting "Holocaust" in West Germany in the first place. But the majority of left and left liberal critics was unable to come to terms with the scope of the emotional explosion triggered by the series. Their arguments stressed that the melodramatic and sentimental treatment of "Holocaust" clouded the "real" issues and prevented spectators from understanding German history. The Left especially was adamant in criticizing the series for not providing a total historical explanation of National Socialism, capitalism, and anti-Semitism. At the same time it was argued that the series' success could and should be used to start a post "Holocaust" campaign of rational political enlightenment which would focus on the roots of anti-Semitism and, more importantly, on the social, economic and ideological roots of National Socialism under which the problem of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust could then safely be subsumed.
23 citations
01 Jan 2004
23 citations
TL;DR: Griswold as mentioned in this paper offers yet another context for discovering the real Adam Smith, but this time the context is the Erilightenment project, which will change how contemporary scholars think about Adam Smith.
Abstract: M any Adam Smiths are presented to us in the secondary literature. There is a liberal Smith (Wolin 1960; Cropsey 1957; Muller 1993), Smith the political economist (Taylor 1960; Barber 1967: Heilbroner 1986; Buchholz 1989: Fitzgibbons 1995; Young 1997; Rashid 1998), a Marxipn Smith (Dodd 1964; Meek 1956, 1957; McNally 1988), a civic humanist Smith (Pocock 1975, 1985: Winch 1978; Dwyer 1998; Gallagher 1998). Smith the Scottish moralist (Phillipson 1983; Dwyer 1987; Skinner 1996), Smith the natural law theorist (Haakonssen 1981: Winch 1983, 1996; Hont and lgnatieff 1983). and even a postmodem Sitiith (Brown 1994; Shapiro 1993). Takn as a whole, the secondary literature on Adam Smith leaves; one with a rather disturbing conclusion: Our understandilig of Smith is determined largely by the context within which he is read. Change the interpretive context and you change the Adam Smith. Finding a reading of Smith that would make sense to Smith himself is often a forlorn hope. Irt ib thus with some trepidation that one approaches Chitrltts Griswold’s Adum Smith utid the Virtues of Enlighteninwi ( 1999). Griswold offers yet another context for discovering the real Adam Smith, but this time the context is the Erilightenment project. Such fears are unfounded. Griswold bas written a masterful commentary on Smith’s work thar will change how contemporary scholars think about
23 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that narratives that link the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution together in an imagined causal series are prone to Disneyish anachronism, especially when they employ bundles of robustly aachronistic terms (Economist, Expert, Scientist) to denote their imagined protagonists.
Abstract: Historians of science and technology once worried about the anachronism that suffused their discipline. Today there is less patience for such critical self-reflection. There are however still certain types of anachronism that historians of science have reason to worry about. My essay interrogates the abiding allure of what I call Disney history. Narratives that link the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution together in an imagined causal series are prone to Disneyish anachronism, especially when they employ bundles of robustly anachronistic terms – economist, expert, scientist – to denote their imagined protagonists. Eighteenth-century oeconomies, which constitute the focus of this volume, have been especially susceptible to this kind of analysis, as indicated by the invention of concepts such as the ‘economic Enlightenment’ and the ‘Industrial Enlightenment’. Such concepts, I argue, are tailored to serve the needs of Disney history.
23 citations