What role did Enlightenment ideas and Thomas Paine’s concept of common sense play in shaping the American Revolution? In this conversation, Dr. Sophia Rosenfeld explores how revolutionary leaders digested and adapted European intellectual currents, and how ordinary people were imagined as capable of participating in a new kind of politics. Discover the ideas that sparked change and still influence us today.
📄 Interview Transcript
🚩About My 198th Guest:
Dr. Sophia Rosenfeld is a professor of history and former chair of the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches European and American intellectual and cultural history with a special emphasis on the Enlightenment, the trans-Atlantic Age of Revolutions, and the legacy of the eighteenth century for modern democracy. Her writings and works include the following books:
1) "The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in the Modern World"
2) "A Revolution in Language: The Problem of Signs in Late Eighteenth-Century France"
3) "Common Sense: A Political History "
4) "Democracy and Truth: A Short History"
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📑 Video Chapters:
00:00 Interview Highlights
02:09 Interview Introduction
03:30 Defining Enlightenment
04:33 Revolution of minds for whom?
08:41 For the Elite-or By the Elite?
12:45 One or many Enlightenments?
14:15 Reason or Enlightenment?
16:12 When was Enlightenment?
18:56 Secular or religious?
20:27 Revolution or Enlightenment?
22:28 American Revolution & Enlightenment
24:40 Was it called Enlightenment in 1700s?
27:43 “Common Sense: A Political History”
32:44 Thomas Paine & 'common sense'
35:05 'common sense' against common people
38:23 'common sense' for Revolution
39:25 'common sense' afterlife
42:20 The “Naïve” Truth-Teller
43:54 The "Age of Choice"
45:31 Revolution & Making Choices
48:21 Americans now vs. during American Revolution
51:17 Why risk a revolution?
52:22 Just One Point
53:38 Thinking about thinking
56:49 Closing & "Yankee Doodle"
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This interview with Dr. Rosenfeld is about the Age of Enlightenment (aka Age of Revolutions) and its impact on the American Revolution.
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