The Age of Voltaire, the ninth volume of The Story of Civilization, is an in-depth examination of France and England in the first half of the 18th century. In this masterful work, listeners will encounter:

• The English ideas that inspired the Enlightenment in France - skepticism, scientific experiment, constitutional government, "natural rights", and individual liberty
• The salons of Paris, where the wits and thinkers of all Europe gathered to exchange ideas
• The philosophers - intellectuals, playwrights, and poets who consulted and consorted with kings and queens
• Voltaire himself - the incarnation of the Enlightenment and a devotee of reason who still defended religious faith
• Mme. Pompadour, patron of the philosophers, who seduced King Louis XV and through him influenced French policy
• The Augustan Age in English literature - Alexander Pope's poetry, Jonathan Swift's satires, and the novels of Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding