Enlightenment

J.W.N. Watkins illustrates how the great individualist thinkers of the 17th century had a profound effect upon the development of modern Europe.

In 1729 a young entrepreneur, Jonathan Tyers, took over the failing management of the pleasure gardens at Vauxhall. During his long tenure he was able to make it a resounding success, as David Coke  explains.

David Torrance examines a pioneering article, first published in History Today in 1990, which argued that the Scottish Enlightenment was not restricted to Edinburgh but was a genuinely national phenomenon.

The Royal Society was founded in 1660 to promote scientific research. Through a process of trial and error, this completely new kind of institution slowly discovered how its ambitions might be achieved – often in ways unforeseen by its founders, writes Michael Hunter.

Simon Henderson places a key figure into the context of modern Russian history.

A.D. Harvey recalls the career of the Swedish king whose assassination inspired a famous opera.

Owen Davies argues that a widespread belief in witchcraft persisted through 19th-century Britain, despite the scepticism engendered by the Enlightenment.

Malcolm Crook takes a fresh look at the eighteenth-century alliance between philosophers and kings.

Charles C. Noel illustrates how the remodelling of the Spanish capital reflected the new philosophical and cultural concerns of her rulers in the 'Age of Reason'. 

Walter Makin gives two cheers for a sample of the popular Access to History series. 

Glasgow's role in the Enlightenment is often overshadowed by Edinburgh, but Roy Campbell shows that the impetus came from the West with the pioneering work done in the city from the early years of the eighteenth century. 

Joseph Wright of Derby and the exhibition at the Tate.