Heroes of the Enlightenment

2 x 50’

BBC Worldwide

A co-production of ARTE/ZDF/BJTV and BBC Worldwide

How did the West modernise? The 18th century European Enlightenment was a key transformation, bringing science, freedom and belief in the individual. It changed the world.

This mini-series looks at the birth of modernity through three of its heroes: Condorcet, a mathematician he did so much to inspire but finally died at the hands of the French Revolution; Frederick the Great, the tyrant who brought in liberal reforms and expanded Prussia by military force; and Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the noble Declaration of Independence, but himself a slave-owner.