"Ruderman offers a major challenge to conventional ways of thinking about the beginnings of modern Jewish history. His is the first account of Anglo-Jewish thought in the eighteenth century. Indeed, I would guess that few Jewish historians know that these materials exist, let alone the degree to which they reflect their authors' immersion in the broad cultural currents of the time. . . . Ruderman's judgments are shrewd and acute but cautious as well, informed by a broad knowledge of both pre-modern Jewish texts as well as early modern science, philosophy, and religion."--Todd M. Endelman, University of Michigan.