Carolyn Purnell's insightful survey of the ways Enlightenment thinkers made sense of their world offers exciting new perspectives on how we see, smell, hear, taste, and touch our own. As entertaining as it enlightening, The Sensational Past is a dazzling debut by a talented young historian.
Peter S. Onuf, author of The Mind of Thomas Jefferson No ... Read moreother history of the Enlightenment is quite like this one! Brilliant insights about the past are juxtaposed with wry comments about how we think today. By finding compelling human-interest stories involving real people, Purnell produces a book that is at once entertaining, erudite, and original.
Gary Kates, professor of history at Pomona College and author of Monsieur d'Eon Is a Woman Show Less