Vital concepts like equality, freedom and emancipation seem inseparable from the European 'Enlightenment'. Yet the following century saw the development of a new and more subtle form of patriarchy, the increasing discrimination and exploitation of colonised peoples and minorities, and the emergence of nationalism and Fascism. Explores a range of texts in literature, philosophy and social history from the eighteenth century to the present, and seeks to analyse both the so-called 'failure(s) of enlightenment' and the impact of the two central and inter-related concepts, nature and reason, that shaped its program.