Jonathan Israel

{{Short description|British historian (born 1946)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = Jonathan Israel | honorific_suffix = [[Fellow of the British Academy|FBA]] | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Jonathan Irvine Israel | birth_date = {{birth-date and age|22 January 1946}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | region = | other_names = | occupation = Academic, [[historian]] | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = | children = | awards =  [[Wolfson History Prize]] [[Fellow of the British Academy]] [[Leo Gershoy Award]] [[Order of the Netherlands Lion]] [[Dr A.H. Heineken Prize]] [[Benjamin Franklin Medal (Royal Society of Arts)|Benjamin Franklin Medal]] [[PROSE Award]] | signature = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | education = | alma_mater =  [[Queens' College, Cambridge]] [[University of Oxford]] | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | influences =  | era = | discipline =  | sub_discipline =  | workplaces =  [[Newcastle University]] (1970–1972) [[University of Hull]] (1972–1974) [[University College London]] (1974–2001) [[Institute for Advanced Study]], Princeton (2001–present) [[University of Amsterdam]] (2007) | doctoral_students =  | notable_students =  | main_interests = [[Dutch history]] [[Age of Enlightenment]] [[European Jews]] [[Spinoza]] | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | website = | footnotes = | academic_advisors = }} '''Jonathan Irvine Israel''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|FBA}} (born 22 January 1946) is a British historian specialising in [[Dutch history]], the [[Age of Enlightenment]], [[Philosophy of Spinoza|Spinoza's philosophy]] and [[European Jews]]. Israel was appointed as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the [[Institute for Advanced Study]], Princeton, New Jersey, in January 2001 and retired in July 2016.<ref>[https://www.ias/edu/hs/israel Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Study],{{Dead link|date=November 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} accessed 6 September 2022</ref> He was previously Professor of Dutch History and Institutions at the [[University College London]].

In recent years, Israel has focused his attention on a multi-volume history of the [[Age of Enlightenment]]. He contrasts two camps. The "radical Enlightenment" was founded on a rationalist materialism first articulated by [[Spinoza]]. Standing in opposition was a "moderate Enlightenment" which he sees as weakened by its belief in God.

== Life == Israel's career until 2001 unfolded in British academia. He attended [[Kilburn Grammar School]], and like his school peer and future fellow historian [[Robert Wistrich]] went on to study History as an undergraduate at [[Queens' College, Cambridge]], graduating with a first-class degree in Part II of the Tripos in 1967.<ref>'Cambridge University Tripos Results', ''The Times'', 23 June 1967.</ref> His graduate work took place at the [[University of Oxford]] and the [[El Colegio de México]], Mexico City, leading to his D.Phil. from Oxford in 1972. He was named [[Sir James Knott, 1st Baronet|Sir James Knott]] Research Fellow at the [[Newcastle University|University of Newcastle upon Tyne]] in 1970, and in 1972 he moved to the [[University of Hull]] where he was first an assistant lecturer then a lecturer in Early Modern Europe. In 1974 he became a lecturer in Early Modern European History at [[University College London]], progressing to become a reader in Modern History in 1981, and then to Professor of Dutch History and Institutions in 1984.

In January 2001, Israel became a professor of modern European history in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.<ref name=PressRelease>{{cite web |title=Jonathan Israel Appointed to Faculty of Institute for Advanced Study |date=17 January 2001 |url=http://www.ias.edu/news/press-releases/israel_appoint |publisher=Princeton Institute for Advanced Study |access-date=21 September 2011 |archive-date=27 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527153503/http://www.ias.edu/news/press-releases/israel_appoint |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2007, the 375th anniversary of the birth of Spinoza, he held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the [[University of Amsterdam]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uva.nl/en/disciplines/philosophy/home/components-centrecolumn/the-spinoza-chair.html|title=The Spinoza Chair – Philosophy – University of Amsterdam|first=Universiteit van|last=Amsterdam|website=Uva.nl|access-date=7 August 2018}}</ref>

== Views == Israel has defined what he considers to be the "Radical Enlightenment," arguing it originated with [[Spinoza]]. He argues in great detail that Spinoza "and Spinozism were in fact the intellectual backbone of the European Radical Enlightenment everywhere, not only in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, and Scandinavia but also Britain and Ireland", and that the Radical Enlightenment, leaning towards religious skepticism and republican government, leads on to the modern liberal-democratic state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Israel |first=J. |title=Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |location=Oxford, England |pages=vi |isbn=0-19-820608-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Chamberlain |first=Lesley |title=When freedom fought faith |date=8 December 2006 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/enlightenment-contested-by-jonathan-israel-427458.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/enlightenment-contested-by-jonathan-israel-427458.html |archive-date=14 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Independent |access-date=21 September 2011}}</ref>

Israel is sharply critical of [[Jean-Paul Marat]] and [[Maximilien de Robespierre]] for repudiating what he sees as the true values of the Radical Enlightenment and grossly distorting the [[French Revolution]]. He argues that, "[[Jacobin]] ideology and culture under Robespierre was an obsessive Rousseauiste moral Puritanism steeped in authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism, and xenophobia, "and it repudiated free expression, basic human rights, and democracy."<ref>{{cite book |last=Israel |first=Jonathan |date=2014 |title=Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=521 |isbn=978-0-691-15172-4}}</ref>

In response to Israel's series on the Enlightenment, writes Johnson Kent Wright, there appeared — :a series of in-depth critiques, from leading practitioners of every stripe, including Theo Verbeek, Harvey Chisick, Anthony La Vopa, Antoine Lilti, Samuel Moyn, and Dan Edelstein. Though all expressed admiration for the breadth of Israel's reading and display of sheer scholarly stamina, they also reached a strikingly unanimous verdict. In the eyes of his critics, Israel's interpretation of the Enlightenment is a kind of academic juggernaut, careening destructively through the discipline, in the service of a false idol—Spinoza, supposed demiurge of modernity—and an unsustainable principle—the idea of an umbilical connection between metaphysical monism and political radicalism.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wright |first=Johnson Kent |title=Review essay |url=http://www.h-france.net/forum/forumvol9/Israel1.pdf |journal=H-France Forum |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=1 |access-date=21 January 2014}}</ref>

A Marxist defense of Israel against one critic ([[Samuel Moyn]]) appeared in 2010 on the [[World Socialist Web Site]], particularly in the article, "The Nation, Jonathan Israel and the Enlightenment". The two defenders also criticize Israel, saying: :There are problems in his argument. The dichotomy between a radical and moderate Enlightenment, however suggestive and stimulating, tends at times to overly simplify complex and contradictory processes in the development of philosophical thought. It is not always the case, as Professor Israel seems to suggest, that the most significant advances in philosophical thought were made by individuals who held the most politically radical views.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/06/enli-j09.html |title=The Nation, Jonathan Israel and the Enlightenment |last1=Talbot |first1=Ann |last2=North |first2=David |date=9 June 2010 |website=World Socialist Web Site |publisher=International Committee of the Fourth International |access-date=15 April 2015}}</ref>

In 2004, in response to a Historisch Nieuwsblad survey, which asked members of the Royal Netherlands Historical Society what were the classic works about Dutch history, ''The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806'' came in second place.<ref>{{Cite web|title = De vijftien klassieke werken over de Nederlandse geschiedenis|date = 12 January 2004|url = http://www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/nl/artikel/6275/de-vijftien-klassieke-werken-over-de-nederlandse-geschiedenis.html|access-date = 2015-06-10}}</ref>

== Honors and awards == He was made a Fellow of the [[British Academy]] in 1992, Corresponding Fellow of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen ([[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]]) in 1994,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.knaw.nl/nl/leden/buitenlandse-leden/4301 |title=Jonathan Israel |language=nl |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=17 July 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115701/https://www.knaw.nl/nl/leden/buitenlandse-leden/4301 |url-status=dead }}</ref> won the [[American Historical Association]]'s [[Leo Gershoy Award]] in 2001, and was made Knight of the [[Order of the Netherlands Lion]] in 2004. In 2008, he won the [[Dr A.H. Heineken Prize]] for history, medicine, environmental studies and cognitive science.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jonathan Israel (biographical details) |url=http://www.ias.edu/about/faculty-and-emeriti/israel |publisher=Princeton Institute for Advanced Study |access-date=21 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090921143103/http://ias.edu/about/faculty-and-emeriti/israel |archive-date=21 September 2009 }}</ref>

In 2010 he was awarded the [[Benjamin Franklin Medal (Royal Society of Arts)|Benjamin Franklin Medal]] by the [[Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce]] (RSA) for his outstanding contribution to Enlightenment scholarship.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jonathan Israel Awarded 2010 Benjamin Franklin Medal |date=24 November 2010 |url=http://www.ias.edu/news/news-briefs/israel-franklin-medal |publisher=Princeton Institute for Advanced Study |access-date=21 September 2011 |archive-date=1 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101034558/http://www.ias.edu/news/news-briefs/israel-franklin-medal |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2015 he was awarded the [[PROSE Awards]] in European & World History by the [[Association of American Publishers]] (AAP) for professional and scholarly excellence.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ias.edu/news/israel-prose2015 |title=Jonathan Israel Awarded 2015 PROSE Award in European and World History |date=10 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501000000/https://www.ias.edu/news/israel-prose2015 |archive-date=1 May 2016 |publisher=Princeton Institute for Advanced Study |access-date=7 May 2023 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2017 Israel received the Comenius Prize by the Comenius Museum for his work on the Age of Enlightenment, Dutch history, and European Jewry and his ability to connect economic and intellectual history with the history of politics, religion, society, and science.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ias.edu/israel-comenius-prize |title= Jonathan Israel Awarded 2017 Comenius Prize |date=8 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701000000/https://www.ias.edu/israel-comenius-prize |publisher=Princeton Institute for Advanced Study |access-date=7 May 2023 |archive-date= 1 July 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Bibliography == {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * {{cite book |title= Race, Class and Politics in Colonial Mexico, 1610–70 |series= Oxford Historical Monographs |year= 1975}} {{ISBN|0-19-821860-5}} HB. * {{cite book|title=The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1606–61|year=1982}} {{ISBN|0-19-826534-4}} HB; {{ISBN|0-19-821998-9}} PB. * {{cite book|title=European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750|year=1985|url=https://archive.org/details/israel-jonathan-i-j-european-jewry-in-the-age-of-mercantilism}} {{ISBN|0-19-821928-8}} HB; {{ISBN|1-874774-42-0}} PB. * {{cite book|title=Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585–1740|year=1989}} {{ISBN|0-19-821139-2}} PB. * {{cite book|title=Empires and Entrepots: The Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy and the Jews, 1585–1713|year=1990}} {{ISBN|1-85285-022-1}} HB. * {{cite book|title=The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and Its World Impact|year=1991}} (editor). {{ISBN|0-521-39075-3}} HB; {{ISBN|0-521-54406-8}} PB. * {{cite book|title=From Persecution to Toleration: Glorious Revolution and Religion in England|year=1991}} (co-editor) {{ISBN|0-19-820196-6}} HB. * {{cite book|title=The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806|series=[[Oxford History of Early Modern Europe]]|year=1995|url=https://archive.org/details/dutchrepublicits00unse}} {{ISBN|0-19-873072-1}} HB; {{ISBN|0-198-20734-4}} PB. * {{cite book|title=Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585–1713|year=1997}} {{ISBN|1-85285-161-9}} HB. * {{cite book|title=Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750|year=2001|url=https://archive.org/details/radicalenlighten0000isra}} {{ISBN|0-19-820608-9}} HB; {{ISBN|0-199-25456-7}} PB. * {{cite book|title=Diasporas Within a Diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews and the World of Maritime Empires (1540–1740)|series=Brill's Series in Jewish Studies|year=2002}} {{ISBN|90-04-12765-8}} HB. * {{cite book|title=Dutch Jewry: Its History and Secular Culture (1500–2000)|series=Brill's Series in Jewish Studies|year=2002}} (co-editor) {{ISBN|90-04-12436-5}} HB. * {{cite book|title=Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man, 1670–1752|year=2006}} {{ISBN|0-19-927922-5}} HB.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2006/11/30/banishing-the-dark |title=Review: Banishing the dark |date=30 November 2006 |newspaper=The Economist|access-date=21 September 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/mind-enlightenment |title=Review: Mind the Enlightenment |last=Moyn |first=Samuel |date=12 May 2010 |publisher=The Nation |access-date=21 September 2011}}</ref> * {{cite book|title=Benedict de Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise|year=2007}} (co-editor) {{ISBN|978-0-521-53097-2}} HB. * {{cite book|title=A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy|year=2009}} {{ISBN|978-0-691-14200-5}} HB. * {{cite book|title=Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750–1790|year=2011}} {{ISBN|978-0-199-54820-0}} HB.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/100556/spinoza-kant-enlightenment-ideas |title=Review: Where Do We Come From? |last=Bell |first=David A. |date=8 February 2012 |magazine=The New Republic |access-date=19 February 2012}}</ref> * {{Cite book |title= Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre |year= 2014 }} {{ISBN|978-0-691-15172-4}} HB. * {{Cite book |title= The Expanding Blaze: How the American Revolution Ignited the World, 1775-1848 |year= 2017 }} {{ISBN|978-0-691-17660-4}} HB. * {{Cite book |title= The Enlightenment That Failed: Ideas, Revolution, and Democratic Defeat, 1748-1830 |year= 2019 }} {{ISBN|978-0-198-73840-4}} HB. * {{Cite book |title= Revolutionary Jews from Spinoza to Marx. The Fight for a Secular World of Universal and Equal Rights |year= 2021}} {{ISBN|978-0-295-74866-5}} HB. * {{Cite book |title= Historical Dictionary of the Enlightenment |year= 2023}} {{ISBN|978-1-538-12313-3}} HB. * {{Cite book |title= Spinoza: Life and Legacy |year=2023}} {{ISBN|978-0-198-85748-8}} HB. {{div col end|2}}

(''Radical Enlightenment'' (2001), ''Enlightenment Contested'' (2006), and ''Democratic Enlightenment'' (2011) constitute a trilogy on the history of the [[Radical Enlightenment]] and the intellectual origins of modern democracy. ''A Revolution of the Mind'' (2009) is a shorter work on the same theme.)

== See also == * [[Counter-Enlightenment]]

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == *[https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/4194/seeing-reason-jonathan-israels-radical-vision Seeing reason: Jonathan Israel's radical vision]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Israel, Jonathan Irvine}} [[Category:1946 births]] [[Category:Historians of Europe]] [[Category:Historians of the Dutch Republic]] [[Category:British Jews]] [[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]] [[Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford]] [[Category:Academics of Newcastle University]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Hull]] [[Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]] [[Category:Professors of Dutch History at University College London]] [[Category:Institute for Advanced Study faculty]] [[Category:Winners of the Heineken Prize]] [[Category:Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion]] [[Category:Neo-Spinozism]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Wolfson History Prize winners]] [[Category:Spinoza scholars]] [[Category:Historians of the American Revolution]] [[Category:Historians of the French Revolution]] [[Category:Historians of the Enlightenment]]