Dr Lawrence Klein presents an Enlightenment Lecture, entitled A Retired Shopkeeper Makes Enlightenment: Edmund Rack in Bath, 1775-1787.

The Enlightenment had a large cast of characters, many of whom were

humble in origin. This talk will explore the nature of Enlightenment

inclusiveness through the experiences of a particular individual.

Edmund Rack was a shopkeeper in East Anglia who turned himself into a

man of letters and, moving to Bath in 1775, put himself at the centre

of the local Bath enlightenment. He published essays, attended literary

salons and helped found two philosophical societies.

His career shows

both the pleasures and worries that attached to eighteenth-century

upward mobility.

Recorded on 18 October 2006 at the University of Edinburgh's St Cecilia's Hall.