The Radical Enlightment was a revolutionary set of ideas which helped lay foundations of the modern world on the basis of equality, democracy, secular values, and universality. In this controversial and original study the renowned cultural historian Joanthan I. Israel reveals the pivotal role of Spinoza and the influence of the widespread underground international philosophical movement known before 1750 as Spinozism on the intellectual and political revolutions of the eighteenth century. (flaptekst)