ABSTRACT
Until its successive defeats in the 1830 and 1848 revolutions, after which it was largely displaced by socialism, the Radical Enlightenment fought to improve human existence generally and emancipate oppressed sections of society by changing the way men think. From the late seventeenth century onwards, 'Moderate Enlightenment' remained the primary project as far as governments, churches, and educators were concerned; but beneath the surface, held Strauss, the radical impulse turned out to be stronger, philosophically and culturally. Throughout the post-1789 revolutionary era, incontrovertibly, in enlightened circles a tight transatlantic linkage existed between adopting democratizing social and political programs, and rejecting religious authority. In 1789, Jefferson, at the time American ambassador in France, openly admired and worked with the democratic republicans Condorcet and Brissot. Clandestinity was essential to shield the Encyclopédie and fundamental to the Radical Enlightenment's opposition-minded networks. Clandestinity mattered considerably less in the irreligious Enlightenment's general evolution after 1789 than earlier.
