“

The essays translated—and brilliantly contextualized—in this book ... give us a fascinating insight into the early stages of the Enlightenment, reminding us that, whatever we owe to this period, we live now in a radically different intellectual world.”

—Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of The Lies That Bind

“To read [these essays] is to witness European intellectuals, in the age of the Atlantic slave

trade, struggling, one after another, to justify atrocity.”

—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths

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