“A scintillating story of how the Enlightenment came into being but was also resisted, a narrative revisited through the eyes of a ‘nobody’ in mid-eighteenth-century England as well as through the usual authorities. Written with verve, this book is a masterpiece of layered intellectual history.”

David D. Hall, Harvard University

“Remarkably erudite and powerfully written, Enlightenment and Original Sin gives us a new origin story of the Enlightenment and our own materialist mores. Kadane offers a brilliant and previously untold deep dive into how the British Dissenting view of original sin would reshape Protestantism in Britain and America at a key moment to create essentially a modern form of Christianity.”

Jacob Soll, author of Free Market: The History of a Dream

“With remarkable clarity and original archival work, Kadane forcefully demonstrates how individuals made the conversion away from traditional religiosity to enlightened principles. Thanks to this groundbreaking work, the Enlightenment becomes lived experience, not simply a set of abstract ideals.”

Margaret C. Jacob, University of California, Los Angeles

"This superb book is a pleasure to read. . . . Kadane demonstrates that between the poles of perfect optimism and pessimism lay a variety of faiths about human nature. . . . It will be read equally as profitably by academics, university students of eighteenth-century cultural and intellectual history, and the public."

History of European Ideas