The Enlightenment is about the power, the beauty, and the truth of reason. Emotion, desire, and magic may readily sway us to instant gratification but reason will lead us to reality.

In his book, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, the Politics of Enlightenment, Darren Staloff forcefully reminds us that America owes its guiding political traditions to three founding fathers whose lives embodied the collision of Europe's grand Enlightenment project with the birth of our nation. Hamilton, Adams, and Jefferson each steered his public life under the guideposts of Enlightenment principles. As a consequence we have a government that is modern and efficient, constrained by checks and balances and capable of appealing to lofty aspirations.

Staloff says no other nation bears the imprint of the Enlightenment as deeply as does the United States and our ideals are inconceivable outside of an Enlightenment context.

--Flo Wineriter