Enlightenment

Interview with an Enlightenment Thinker
A study of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution

IsaacNewton

"I do not agree with a single word you say but will defend to the death your right to say it." Voltaire

Books: Looks for these titles on our Elms library shelves

305.4094 SPE

French women and the Age of Enlightenment
  Spencer, Samia I., 1943-
  Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [1992], c1984.
  xv, 429 p. ; 24 cm

901.933 GAY

Age of enlightenment
  Gay, Peter, 1923-
  New York : Time, inc. [school and library distribution by Silver Burdett Co, 1974.
  192 p. : illus.

B NEWTON DAC

Sir Isaac Newton, His life and Work
  Andrade, E. N. da C. (Edward Neville da Costa), 1887-1971
  Garden City, N. Y. : Doubleday, 1954.
  144 p.

B WOLLSTONECRAFT SUN

A different face : the life of Mary Wollstonecraft 1st ed.
  Sunstein, Emily W.
  New York : Harper & Row, [1975]
  xiv, 383 p., [4] leaves of plates : ill. ; 25 cm.

509 ASI

Great ideas of science
  Asimov, Isaac, 1920-
  Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1969.
  140 p. : illus. ; 23 cm.

B GALILIE BRO

Galileo; the man, his work, his misfortunes
  Brodrick, James, 1891-
  New York : Harper & Row, [1964]
  152 p. : illus., ports ; 21 cm.

INTERNET

Arts & humanities through the eras [electronic resource]
Gale Group.
Detroit, Mich. : Thomson Gale, c2005.

World History Elms Databases

Gale Student Resources in Context Links to articles, book excerpts and scholarly journals and more on the Enlightenment period and the Scientific Revolution.

Gale World History in Context an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in World History. The new solution merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.

World History in the Modern Era covers the evolution of modern Europe since the Renaissance; concurrent developments in Asia, Africa, and the Islamic world; the global impact of the Industrial Revolution; and the last 100 years of conflicts and international cooperation. This comprehensive resource provides easy-to-navigate access to authoritative information for research purposes, brings history to life via a range of source materials.

Biography Elms Databases:

Gale Biography in Context Biographies on athletes, African Americans, American presidents, environmentalists, notable women, children's authors, scientists and social reformers. Search for people based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender as well as keyword and full text.

Gale Virtual Reference Library and Gale Student Resources in Context Full text of biography books and thousands of succinct biographies from biography reference books

Biography Reference Bank. Articles about more than a half-million people, most in full text, from around the world, both living and dead.

Go to Elms Biography page links

Images online at Gale for all but Beccaria. Look for Beccaria images on Florida Institute of Technology site

Some Noteworthy Enlightenment Figures:

Rene Decartes 1596-1650

John Locke 1632-1704

Moliere 1622-1715

Louis XIV 1638-1715

Voltaire 1694-1778

Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778

Denis Diderot 1713-1734

Giovanni Battista Beccaria 1716 –1781

Catherine the Great 1729-1796

Marquis de Condorcet 1743-1794

Assignment: Interview with a Thinker of the Enlightenment

Task: Using scholarly, academic sources, construct an interview with one of the figures of the Enlightenment. Your interview should be written in interview paragraph style and should contain the following:

Introduction in italics. Explaining the date, circumstances and location where you interviewed the person. Describing the experience of seeing, greeting and thanking the person (through a translator if necessary) to greet and begin the question and answer period. Introduction should contain an image of the person and another (if possible) of the place in which the interview has taken place.

Questions: Ranging from the person’s childhood and formation to their great struggles and works. Questions should reflect the person’s convictions and philosophy and humanity and harmonize with the time in their life when the interview is taking place.

Answers: Every effort should be made to use the words of the person and their convictions and even prejudices and biases in the way they answer each question. (Include in italics your observations on the person’s behavior as they answer a difficult question.)

Conclusion: Engineer a way for the interview to end and then write a summary of your reaction to this encounter with this figure of the Enlightenment.

Footnotes: Sources throughout the interview document at cited at the end of the assignment.

Rubric for Getting the Three Percentage Points

Introduction was detailed and read like an exciting narrative. The interviewer described in great detail her observations of the place, circumstance and sight of the Enlightenment figure for the first time.

Interview contained 20 or more incisive first questions and probing follow-up questions showing the interviewer prepared in advance what it was she wanted to hear from the lips of this famous person. Each question invited the person to go into deep answers his personal feelings and beliefs. Questions and answers flowed naturally.

Generous explanations and observations in italics revealed the humanity of the person throughout the interview.

Conclusion was logical, dignified and fitting for a person of historical importance.

Footnotes were complete and in sufficient quantity to document sources used and reflected an abundant use of the scholarly online and print resources at Our Lady of the Elms.