In this sweeping history, Sarah Bakewell, herself a lifelong humanist, illuminates the very personal, individual, and, well, human matter of humanism, taking readers on a grand intellectual adventure. Voyaging from the literary enthusiasts of the fourteenth century to the secular campaigners of our own time, from Erasmus to Esperanto, and from Voltaire to Zora Neale Hurston, Bakewell brings together extraordinary humanists across history. This book asks not only what brings all these aspects of humanism together but why it has such enduring power, despite opposition from fanatics, mystics, and tyrants.