Abstract
An overview of historiography since the end of the nineteenth century, with a particular focus on social history. I trace the Marxist interpretations of the Enlightenment (Engels, Goldmann, etc.), the challenge posed to these interpretations by mid-twentieth-century historians, and the rise of a "social history of ideas" (Darnton, Roche) that emphasized the compatibility of the Enlightenment with the social and political structures of the time. Next, I answer the question: how can we place the Enlightenment in a social context if the Enlightenment itself has been deconstructed, multiplied, globalized and called into question by postcolonial criticism? Finally, I give a brief overview of new research on the economic and social dynamism of Western societies at the time, and discuss how historians can rethink the relationship between the Enlightenment, the rise of capitalism and the social structures of the European Ancien Régime.
