The ever-widening application of conversational style created a conversational Enlightenment The Conversational Enlightenment traces the spread of the concept of conversation during the Enlightenment, including the project of politeness, the fine arts, philosophy and public opinion. The book narrates this triumph of conversational style and thought partly as a succession to the oratorical rhetoric that characterised the Renaissance and partly as the victory of the only mode of speech that recognised women as women, and not as imitation men. It also rewrites Jürgen Habermas' history of the public sphere as the history of rational conversation. Key Features: The first book-length intellectual history of Enlightenment conversation in English Synthesises a great deal of Enlightenment intellectual history within the frameworks of rhetoric and conversation Puts women's speech at the heart of the history of Enlightenment rhetoric Fuses Habermas' historical-theoretical framework to the history of rhetoric, revising both.