The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism: The Early Modern Origins of the Intellectual Ideal

Description

Modern cosmopolitanism - often considered to have been largely refined by Immanuel Kant in the 18th century - has a long and complicated history which reaches beyond the European enlightenments. In fact, as this book demonstrates, the roots of modern cosmopolitanism can be traced back to as early as the 1500s when a meta-narrative and awareness of the cosmopolitan idea came into existence. Unearthing occurrences of cosmopolitan language in popular media and analysing the writings of leading thinkers like Erasmus of Rotterdam and Montaigne, Leigh T.I. Penman illustrates how cosmopolitanism was not, as previously thought, purely secular and inclusive but could be sacred and exclusive too. And, significantly, this book reveals the extent to which these contesting ideas of cosmopolitanism influenced the modern concept of the cosmopolitan. Meticulously researched and elegantly argued, this book provides the first intellectual history of cosmopolitan ideas from 1500 to 1800. As such, The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism is an important text for anyone seeking a sophisticated and historically-contextualised understanding of cosmopolitanism in the early modern age and beyond.