The French Enlightenment and its others

This book explores the French Enlightenment's use of cross-cultural comparisons, particularly the figures of the Chinese mandarin and American and Polynesian savage- to praise of critique aspects of European society and to draw general conclusions regarding human nature, natural law, and the rise and decline of civilizations. Following such comparisons across a variety of contexts over the course of the eighteenth century, David Harvey concludes that by the eve of the French Revolution, thinkers had mobilized cross-cultural comparisons in order to articulate a vision of Europe's identity and place in the world, defining it both as civilized and also as dynamic and progressive.