Magnificent Rebels

In the 1790s a group of friends gathered in the small German town of Jena set out to change how people thought about themselves and the world, and Andrea Wulf tells their story. Let down by the speed with which the French Revolution collapsed into tyranny, they wanted a revolution of the mind instead, after Europe's rulers had long dictated how their peoples should think and act. Working through poetry, drama, philosophy and science, they became the first Romantics. Wulf argues that their ideas still frame modern lives, including the balance between self-fulfilment and narcissism and between individual rights and duties to the community and to future generations.

Tyler Cowen included it on his list of the best non-fiction books of 2022, describing it as top-grade academic gossip.