French Enlightenment

Brought to you by Penguin. The Enlightenment is one of the formative periods of Western history, yet more than 300 years after it began, it remains controversial. It is often seen as the fountainhead of modern values such as human rights, religious toleration, freedom of thought, scientific...

In 2008, celebrating the long-awaited completion of the English-language translation of The Great Treatise, the Dalai Lama gave a historic six-day teaching at Lehigh University to explain the meaning of this classic text and to underscore its importance. It is the longest teaching that he has ever given to Westerners on just one text, and Westerners have never before had the opportunity to receive such a complete teaching that encompasses the totality of the Buddhist path from the Dalai Lama.

Paul Theroux celebrates fifty years of wandering the globe by collecting the best writing on travel from the books that shaped him, as a reader and a traveler. Part philosophical guide, part miscellany, part reminiscence, The Tao of Travel enumerates “The Contents of Some Travelers’ Bags”...

The editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica are pleased to present The French Revolution Series. Here you will learn about the grandeur and opulence of the French régime, as well as its chaotic downfall and the new order that rose from its ashes. In this edition, the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica examine France in the Age of Enlightenment, leading up to the causes of the French Revolution.

French philosophy has been led on by three most influent thinkers, each one bordering on literature and bringing new understandings to politics, philosophy, and religion. Michel de Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre; his style merges casual anecdotes and autobiography with deep intellectual insights. His "Essays" are among the most influential ever written; one can recognize Montaigne's direct influence on great literary figures all over the world.