Justus Möser occupies an important position in the history of Western European civilization. Throughout his life he scrutinized the basic assumptions of the reigning philosophes and warned about the dangers of considering rationalism a panacea for all peoples of all times. A poet, dramatist, journalist, historian, pedagogue, jurist, statesman, observer of political institutions, and student of the incipient social sciences, Möser stood firmly in opposition not to enlightened thought but to the Enlightenment as a program that could not be contested. While Möser appreciated the phenomenal artistic contributions of France, he rejected all attempts at French intellectual and cultural hegemony. He also opposed revisionist policies elsewhere--such as those of Catherine the Great, who, under the guise of rational scientific exploration, ordered the suppression of aboriginal tribal customs so as to shape the Russian Empire into an Enlightened state on the pre-Revolutionary French...