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community, from which he was later expelled because of his heretical
convictions, and a circle of atheistic freethinkers who met in the
same city during the 1650s and 1660s. Among the highlights of the
book is also a captivatingly narrated publishing history of Spinoza’s
main works, the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1669–70) and the Ethics
(1677–8). This is a prime example of the skill with which publishers
and authors of clandestine literature circumvented censorship and
disseminated their intellectual contraband. Attention is further given
to some of Spinoza’s comrades-in-arms, for example, the ex-Jesuit
Van den Emden and the brothers Koerbagh. They composed equally
outrageous tracts which were usually anonymously published, but
the brothers Koerbagh had the misfortune to be discovered and sentenced
by a magistrate. Yet the exponents of Spinoza’s philosophy
not only had to struggle with hostile authorities, but were also
involved in the first, still rather small-scale learned controversies. On
the other hand, Spinoziste philosophy started to gain adherents in
England, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, and �rance. Even before
Spinoza’s death in 1677, therefore, a philosophical school had come
into existence. Until the 1680s, however, Spinozism still relied on a
relatively small and close-knit network of ardent admirers.
Only in the period between 1680 and 1720 did it mature into the
full-blown radical current within the Enlightenment which is the
theme of Israel’s book. This transformation was brought about by a
series of sensational debates, which nowadays have been largely forgotten,
even by experts on the Enlightenment. But in Spinoza’s time,
they attracted the attention of intellectuals in the whole of Europe
and forced his disciples to formulate a cohesive set of ideas and
beliefs. These controversies either centred on individuals such as
Pierre Bayle and Bernard Le Bovier de �ontenelle, who were accused
of atheism, or on certain topics, for example, the reality of miracles or
supernatural beings like demons, spirits, sorcerers, and the devil.
Since Spinozism honed its profile in constant dispute with more
moderate positions in contemporary philosophy, Israel devotes part
of his book to the mainstream of the Enlightenment, thus for a time
broadening its scope into a comprehensive history of intellectual
developments in early eighteenth-century Europe. He basically distinguishes
four different camps which led the ‘counter-offensive’ (p.
445) against the radicals. �irst, there was liberal theology exemplified
by such clergymen as the �rench Oratorian Richard Simon or the
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A War of Words?