Scrivener examines the new internationalism which emerged in Europe during the Enlightenment. Critical of and distanced from his or her nation and class, the cosmopolitan intellectual formed an identity within a supranational community. A movement that started in elite salons moved to coffee-houses and public bars as the polity expanded to global dimensions. The cosmopolitan ideal was to collapse, however, in the face of nationalisms which developed during the revolutionary wars in Europe. In his final chapter, Scrivener looks at the 'second generation' Romantics who struggled against nationalism at the moment it was triumphing. This is the first scholarly study of cosmopolitanism to take into account recent feminist and post-colonial critiques of the Enlightenment. Scrivener offers cosmopolitanism as a solution to contemporary struggles to reach a post-national political identity.

"'offers a complex, first-person discussion of European cosmopolitan views ... examination of lesser-known authors and venues are valuable ... recommended'"