Scott L. Montgomery & Daniel Chirot
With a new preface by the authors

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: Ideas as Historical Forces 1
PART I: INVENTORS OF MODERNITY AND WHAT BECAME OF THEIR IDEAS 17
1 Adam Smith: The Science of Man, Morality, and Money 19
2 Karl Marx: The Tragic Consequences of a Brilliant Theory 81
3 Charles Darwin: Struggle and Selection in the Realm of Ideas 148
4 Making Democracy: The Jefferson-Hamilton Debates 215
PART II: SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS REACTIONS AGAINST ENLIGHTENMENT 279
5 Counter-Enlightenment: From Antimodernism to Fascism 281
6 Christian Fundamentalism: The Politics of God in America 336
7 Purifying Islam: The Muslim Reaction against the Western Enlightenment 379
Conclusion: The Power of Ideas and the Importance of the Humanities 418
Bibliography 439
Index 473

How four revolutionary ideas from the Enlightenment shaped today's world
This panoramic book tells the story of how revolutionary ideas from the Enlightenment about freedom, equality, evolution, and democracy have reverberated through modern history and shaped the world as we know it today.
A testament to the enduring power of ideas, The Shape of the New offers unforgettable portraits of Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx-heirs of the Enlightenment who embodied its highest ideals about progress-and shows how their thoughts, over time and in the hands of their followers and opponents, transformed the very nature of our beliefs, institutions, economies, and politics. Yet these ideas also hold contradictions. They have been used in the service of brutal systems such as slavery and colonialism, been appropriated and twisted by monsters like Stalin and Hitler, and provoked reactions against the Enlightenment's legacy by Islamic Salafists and the Christian Religious Right.
The Shape of the New argues that it is impossible to understand the ideological and political conflicts of our own time without familiarizing ourselves with the history and internal tensions of these world-changing ideas. With passion and conviction, it exhorts us to recognize the central importance of these ideas as historical forces and pillars of the Western humanistic tradition. It makes the case that to read the works of the great thinkers is to gain invaluable insights into the ideas that have shaped how we think and what we believe.