About the Author

Richard Olson is Professor of History and Willard W. Keith Fellow in the Humanities at Harvey Mudd College.

Reviews

"[A] lucid, learned study. . . . The core of the book is a sustained analysis of how the practitioners of Enlightenment human sciences, from Montesquieu to Adam Smith, Harley to Helvetius, laid the foundations for liberal and conservative political ideologies alike. . . . A study that bravely swims against the current of specialization and ever-less-general generalizations."--Lorraine Daston, "ISIS