Notes to
Contributors &
Subscribers
Enlightenment and Dissent was founded in 1982 as the successor to the Price-Priestley Newsletter. The latter was concerned with the Rational Dissent in late eighteenth-century England; Enlightenment and Dissent set out to broaden its scope within the area of what can be described as the English Enlightenment. It has published articles on major as well as neglected figures. Articles published since 1982 have ranged from John Locke, Mathew Tindal, Samuel Clarke (special number), Henry Grove, Edmund Law, William Chambers, David Hartley, William Paley, Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Hays, William Godwin, Francis Maseres, Joseph Towers, Sir William Jones, David Williams, John Thelwall and Jeremy Bentham. Reviewing the journal in the Times Literary Supplement in the 1980s, Roy Porter concluded:
Whether such a beast as the English Enlightenment ever existed is still a bone of contention. This admirable journal is helping to settle the question in the affirmative.
But the journal is not confined to English Enlightenment studies. It has explored important themes of general relevance to the Enlightenment, such as the relationship of enlightened ideas to emergent nationalism, the cross currents between popular and Enlightenment culture, the foundations of religious belief in the Enlightenment, the tensions between paternalism and individualism, and the role of science in Enlightenment thought. It has published work concerning the Enlightenment in America, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany, including substantial pieces which would not have found an outlet in journals preferring the short and snappy. It also has published original documents of unusual interest including material by Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, Theophilus Lindsey and William Godwin. It restricts the number of reviews it publishes so that they can explore the full significance of a work. Review articles and commentaries either explore the contribution of particular works or offer reflections on major issues in Enlightenment studies such as methodology in the history of ideas.
The co-editors of the journal are Martin Fitzpatrick and James Dybikowski. The reviews editor is Anthony Page.
This site is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia.