Our book for March is Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Blakewell.
From Amazon:
Voyaging from the literary enthusiasts of the fourteenth century to the secular campaigners of our own time,... Bakewell brings together extraordinary humanists across history. She explores their immense variety: some sought to promote scientific and rationalist ideas, others put more emphasis on moral living, and still others were concerned with the cultural and literary studies known as “the humanities.” Humanly Possible asks not only what brings all these aspects of humanism together but why it has such enduring power, despite opposition from fanatics, mystics, and tyrants.
[A]t a moment when we are all too conscious of the world’s divisions, Humanly Possible – brimming with ideas, experiments in living, and respect for the deepest ethical values – serves as a re-centering, a call to care for one another, and a reminder that we are all, together, only human.
“Engagingly written as well as richly informative . . . every thinker, every book, every movement is located lightly and precisely in relation to its past and its influence on the present day. I can’t imagine a better history of humanism, nor one that is so vividly persuasive.” – Philip Pullman, author His Dark Materials trilogy