In recent years, Israel has focused his attention on a multi-volume history of theAge of Enlightenment. He contrasts two camps. The "radical Enlightenment" was founded on a rationalist materialism first articulated bySpinoza. Standing in opposition was a "moderate Enlightenment" which he sees as weakened by its belief in God.
Israel's career until 2001 unfolded in British academia. He attendedKilburn Grammar School, and like his school peer and future fellow historianRobert Wistrich went on to study History as an undergraduate atQueens' College, Cambridge, graduating with a first-class degree in Part II of the Tripos in 1967.[2] His graduate work took place at theUniversity of Oxford and theEl Colegio de México, Mexico City, leading to his D.Phil. from Oxford in 1972. He was namedSir James Knott Research Fellow at theUniversity of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1970, and in 1972 he moved to theUniversity of Hull where he was first an assistant lecturer then a lecturer in Early Modern Europe. In 1974 he became a lecturer in Early Modern European History atUniversity College London, progressing to become a reader in Modern History in 1981, and then to Professor of Dutch History and Institutions in 1984.
In January 2001, Israel became a professor of modern European history in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.[3] In 2007, the 375th anniversary of the birth of Spinoza, he held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at theUniversity of Amsterdam.[4]
Israel has defined what he considers to be the "Radical Enlightenment," arguing it originated withSpinoza. He argues in great detail that Spinoza "and Spinozism were in fact the intellectual backbone of the European Radical Enlightenment everywhere, not only in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, and Scandinavia but also Britain and Ireland", and that the Radical Enlightenment, leaning towards religious skepticism and republican government, leads on to the modern liberal-democratic state.[5][6]
Israel is sharply critical ofJean-Paul Marat andMaximilien de Robespierre for repudiating what he sees as the true values of the Radical Enlightenment and grossly distorting theFrench Revolution. He argues that, "Jacobin ideology and culture under Robespierre was an obsessive Rousseauiste moral Puritanism steeped in authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism, and xenophobia, "and it repudiated free expression, basic human rights, and democracy."[7]
In response to Israel's series on the Enlightenment, writes Johnson Kent Wright, there appeared —
a series of in-depth critiques, from leading practitioners of every stripe, including Theo Verbeek, Harvey Chisick, Anthony La Vopa, Antoine Lilti, Samuel Moyn, and Dan Edelstein. Though all expressed admiration for the breadth of Israel's reading and display of sheer scholarly stamina, they also reached a strikingly unanimous verdict. In the eyes of his critics, Israel's interpretation of the Enlightenment is a kind of academic juggernaut, careening destructively through the discipline, in the service of a false idol—Spinoza, supposed demiurge of modernity—and an unsustainable principle—the idea of an umbilical connection between metaphysical monism and political radicalism.[8]
A Marxist defense of Israel against one critic (Samuel Moyn) appeared in 2010 on theWorld Socialist Web Site, particularly in the article, "The Nation, Jonathan Israel and the Enlightenment". The two defenders also criticize Israel, saying:
There are problems in his argument. The dichotomy between a radical and moderate Enlightenment, however suggestive and stimulating, tends at times to overly simplify complex and contradictory processes in the development of philosophical thought. It is not always the case, as Professor Israel seems to suggest, that the most significant advances in philosophical thought were made by individuals who held the most politically radical views.[9]
In 2004, in response to a Historisch Nieuwsblad survey, which asked members of the Royal Netherlands Historical Society what were the classic works about Dutch history,The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806 came in second place.[10]
In 2017 Israel received the Comenius Prize by the Comenius Museum for his work on the Age of Enlightenment, Dutch history, and European Jewry and his ability to connect economic and intellectual history with the history of politics, religion, society, and science.[15]
Diasporas Within a Diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews and the World of Maritime Empires (1540–1740). Brill's Series in Jewish Studies. 2002.ISBN90-04-12765-8 HB.
Dutch Jewry: Its History and Secular Culture (1500–2000). Brill's Series in Jewish Studies. 2002. (co-editor)ISBN90-04-12436-5 HB.
Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man, 1670–1752. 2006.ISBN0-19-927922-5 HB.[16][17]
Benedict de Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise. 2007. (co-editor)ISBN978-0-521-53097-2 HB.
A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy. 2009.ISBN978-0-691-14200-5 HB.
Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750–1790. 2011.ISBN978-0-199-54820-0 HB.[18]
Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre. 2014.ISBN978-0-691-15172-4 HB.
The Expanding Blaze: How the American Revolution Ignited the World, 1775-1848. 2017.ISBN978-0-691-17660-4 HB.
The Enlightenment That Failed: Ideas, Revolution, and Democratic Defeat, 1748-1830. 2019.ISBN978-0-198-73840-4 HB.
Revolutionary Jews from Spinoza to Marx. The Fight for a Secular World of Universal and Equal Rights. 2021.ISBN978-0-295-74866-5 HB.
(Radical Enlightenment (2001),Enlightenment Contested (2006), andDemocratic Enlightenment (2011) constitute a trilogy on the history of theRadical Enlightenment and the intellectual origins of modern democracy.A Revolution of the Mind (2009) is a shorter work on the same theme.)
^Israel, J. (2001).Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. vi.ISBN0-19-820608-9.
^Chamberlain, Lesley (8 December 2006)."When freedom fought faith".The Independent.Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved21 September 2011.
^Israel, Jonathan (2014).Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 521.ISBN978-0-691-15172-4.
^Wright, Johnson Kent."Review essay"(PDF).H-France Forum.9 (1): 1. Retrieved21 January 2014.
