To say that such a volume as this is prolegomenal is not merely a formality. By its very nature, this collection provides not a synthesis but varying approaches to a common theme: the eighteenth-century Enlightenment seen in its national dimensions. The individual contributions reflect the many common and diverse facets of the Enlightenment as it developed in Europe and America. They equally express the varying methodologies employed by their authors to explore it, their different viewpoints on the historical process.

It would be absurd to distil from these pieces another, ‘quintessential’ essay as it were, for the general reader. That is certainly not the aim of this afterword. Rather it is concerned with the nature and place of the Enlightenment in history. It goes without saying that this is a very large question, and the brief remarks that follow cannot pretend to answer it adequately.