Reading Bayle by Thomas M. Lennon (review)

humanities 373 publications. A short foreword is presented in both French and English, followed by four chapters in English and eight in French. After a substantial introduction by Thomas Wien, part 1 offers three historiographical overviews of research from the mid-1970s to the mid1990s on three of the four main sections of Dechêne's book: population (by Danielle Gauvreau); trade (by Dale Miquelon); and agriculture (by Louis Michel). Subsequent research related to the fourth section on `society' in Habitants et marchands is examined by Wien in the introduction. Part 2 includes eight essays that illustrate current research priorities and methodologies. Four chapters illustrate the new focus on aboriginal history (by William C. Wicken, Bruce M. White, Allan Greer, and Wien) while three chapters address economic questions (by Catherine Desbarats, Sylvie Dépatie, and Mario Lalancette with Alan M. Stewart) and one chapter examines marriage contracts in a rural area (by Geneviève Postolec). Taken together, the chapters of this fine collection emphasize the enormous contribution of Louise Dechêne to our understanding of the importance of context, the value of systematic study of routinely generated sources, and of examining both the history of `famous' and the `anonymous .' At the same time, the chapters also reveal how researchers are now focusing on the challenge of understanding interrelationships, of probing the interconnectedness of historical processes. Unlike Dechêne, who perceived distinct worlds of town and country, for example, researchers are now exploring the ways in which all parts contributed to the whole. In this sense, the historical debate inspired by Habitants et marchands has moved in the direction of complexity studies with even more questions arising from each new study. At the moment, the result is `more composite than coherent' as the editors say in their foreword, in keeping with the general orientation of the social sciences and humanities. For this reason, Twenty Years Later will be a great interest to researchers of diverse times and places, and should be required reading for graduate students at least in Canada, if not elsewhere as well. (CHAD GAFFIELD) Thomas M. Lennon. Reading Bayle University of Toronto Press x, 202. $60.00, $16.95 Students of early modern philosophy will welcome a new book on Pierre Bayle. Bayle's life (1647B1706) spanned the second half of the seventeenth century. Following upon the religious upheavals of the Reformation, it was truly a century of genius, giving birth not only to modern philosophy and science but also to radically new social and political institutions. It was a time marked by religious struggles between Catholics and Protestants (and between Protestants), theological disputes about free will, grace, and 374 letters in canada 1999 evil, and philosophical controversies between Descartes, Gassendi, Malebranche , Spinoza, and Leibniz over God and creation, mind and body, causality and knowledge. These issues were intimately connected with the basic controversies which emerged within the new science over Copernicanism , atomism, matter and motion, space and time. All parties agreed, however, that the crumbling edifice of Aristotelian science needed to be replaced by a new philosophy which could find a place for religion, ethics, and politics within the framework of the new mechanistic physics. Although Bayle's work lies at the heart of these momentous questions, he has been neglected by scholars writing in English. As Lennon's extensive and useful bibliography shows, there are two recent books in English (by Kilculklen and Whelan, as well as a translation of Labrousse's Bayle), and a few recent articles (by Bracken, James, Norton, and O'Cathasaigh). During the past generation the major source in English of our knowledge of Bayle has been the extensive and pioneering work of Richard Popkin (both his edition of selections from the Dictionary and his numerous studies of modern scepticism). The title reveals the main purpose of the book: `to indicate how anyone might read Bayle,' to offer `a reading of Bayle,' and to record `thoughts upon reading Bayle.' Such a book is necessary because of `The Bayle Enigma.' Lennon notes that the literature on Bayle exhibits `a special difficulty in the interpretation of his work.' There is not just `radical disagreement' about the author's doctrines, arguments, and aims, but a...