This book offers a new approach to understanding the history of ignorance across politics, religion, history and science during the early Enlightenment.

Cornel Zwierlein is a Professor in the Department of History at Bochum University, Germany. He completed his Ph.D. in 2003 at the University of Munich. From 2013 to 2015 he was a Fellow at Harvard University's History Department (Henkel/EU) and in 2014 was a Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge.

Introduction; 1. Politics and economy: nationalizing economics; 2. Religion: empires ignoring, learning, forgetting religions; 3. History: how to cope with unconscious ignorance; 4. Science: Mediterranean empires and scientific unknowns; Conclusion; Bibliography.