Over the course of the eighteenth century, Enlightenment thinkers claimed the right to divide humankind into distinct biological categories for the first time in history––laying the groundwork for the modern concept of race. Prize-winning biographer Andrew S. Curran retraces this misunderstood history through the lives and ideas of thirteen of these pivotal figures. Moving from the gilded halls of Versailles to the slave plantations of the Caribbean, from the court of the Mughal Empire to the drawing rooms of Jefferson’s Monticello, this sweeping narrative reveals how the Enlightenment’s ultimate Promethean quest overlapped with systems of empire and oppression––inviting a deeper understanding of the era’s lasting impact and the thinkers who helped shape it.

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