George Washington's False Teeth: An Unconventional Guide to the Eighteenth…

While I agree that it is very unconventional, and therefore is all the more impressive in that it does tie together, I cannot maintain that it is in any way a guide to the eighteenth century. It is more of a guide to eighteenth century France. In forming an analysis of the Enlightenment, Darnton centers himself around Paris, the early philosophes, and later, the new wits and the "sauvage americain". Centers such as London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Philadelphia are mentioned only in passing or focused on in relation to Paris. From there, the system of communication in the Republic of Letters is demonstrated in French terms and the methods described could only apply if one were in a 18th c. French city. Also, the enlightened system of economics is instead the Paris Bourse, aka, the 18th c. French "Wall Street", and George Washington (despite being in the title) is mentioned only twice. But even then, the American philosophes are only described in their relation to the French, to the point where Darnton moves away from them completely and instead focuses on Brissot, Claviere, Condorcet, and the Gallo-American Society. But moving past the very misleading title, I loved this book. Darnton explores subjects almost unheard of or largely ignored, despite being very significant. What did the end of Voltaire's Candide represent to 18th c. readers? What are chansonniers, and how did they express revolutionary nationalism? What caused the desacralization of the monarchy? What are the differences between a philosophe, a man of letters, a scientist, a cosmopolitan and a man of the world? Darnton answers all of this and so much more, in what I find to be a truly mesmerizing assessment of the Enlightenment in France. ( )