Spinoza, Liberalism and the Question of Jewish Identity Steven B. Smith

Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) - often recognized as the first modern Jewish thinker - was also a founder of modern liberal political philosophy. This book is the first to connect systematically these two aspects of Spinoza's legacy. Steven B. Smith shows that Spinoza was a politically engaged theorist who both advocated and embodied a new conception of the emancipated individual, a thinker who decisively influenced such diverse movements as the Enlightenment, liberalism, and political Zionism.