Volume 9 in THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION, THE AGE OF VOLTAIRE, is the biography of a great man as well as the story of ideas and events that culminated in the French Revolution. But the revolution turned inward and set the stage for Napoleon, a disaster for Europe in general and for the French in particular. Of notable interest to the general reader is the Durants’ conclusion that it was English ideas of skepticism, scientific experiment, „natural rights,” constitutional government, and individual liberty that started the French on their road to ruin.

CONTENTS:
PROLOGUE
1. France: The Regency: 1715-23
ENGLAND: 1714-56
2. The People
3. The Rulers
4. Religion and Philosophy
5. Literature and the Stage
6. Art and Music
FRANCE: 1723-56
7. The People and the State
8. Morals and Manners
9. The Worship of Beauty
10. The Play of the Mind
11. Voltaire in France: 1729-50
MIDDLE EUROPE: 1713-56
12. The Germany of Bach
13. Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa
14. Switzerland and Voltaire
THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING: 1715-89
15. The Scholars
16. The Scientific Advance
17. Medicine
THE ATTACK UPON CHRISTIANITY: 1730-74
18. The Atheists: 1730-51
19. Diderot and the Encyclopedie: 1713-68
20. Diderot Proteus: 1758-73
21. The Spreading Campaign: 1758-74
22. Voltaire and Christianity: 1734-78
23. The Triumph of the Philosophes: 1715-89
EPILOGUE IN ELYSIUM