“Power, Pleasure and Profit is by far the most challenging book on my list. David Wootton is one of the best intellectual historians we’ve got.” Paul Lay (History Today) gives his Five Books recommendations for the best History books of 2018.
Wootton’s erudition is impressive and his range of inquiry is vast
“David Wootton gives us an Enlightenment that initiated the unlimited pursuit of power, pleasure and profit. It is the perfect Enlightenment for the age of Trump. Not that Wootton himself would celebrate it as such. His own view of it is somewhat mixed. And yet he is clear about its consequences. What he describes as ‘the Enlightenment paradigm’ ushered in a new type of civilisation, leading to ‘the triumph of the idea that power, pleasure and profit are goods to be pursued without end and without limit’. In this new world, ‘virtue, honor, shame and guilt counted for almost nothing; all that mattered was success.'”
Darrin M. McMahon reviews Power, Pleasure, and Profit for Literary Review.
Wootton’s vividly written narrative never loses momentum
“Wootton presents the conceptual shift that gave birth to our life today in a book that is ambitious and impressive in its sweep.” John Gray reviews Power, Pleasure, and Profit for The New Statesman.
The Enlightenment We Need
“Wootton’s Enlightenment ushered in a moral universe of unstoppable excess—one in which the pursuit of power, pleasure, and profit had no limit, for individuals or for societies… The chapters themselves are subtle and often witty explorations of Enlightenment texts“. James Cappel reviews Power, Pleasure, and Profit for Commonweal Magazine.
Wootton demonstrates a consistent ability to make complex intellectual ideas approachable.
“Histories of ideas can be a snooze, but this is a surprisingly lucid examination of a dramatic revolution in human thought.” Read the Kirkus review of Power, Pleasure, and Profit.
Self-mastery versus self-interest
“Wootton writes to provoke. His style is engaging, and he has a practiced eye for finding the historically telling detail.” Jeffrey Collins (professor of history at Queen’s University, Ontario) reviews Power, Pleasure, and Profit for The Wall Street Journal.