Jonathan Israel is an historian specialising in early modern Dutch and Enlightenment history, serving as Professor of Dutch History and Institutions in succession to Koen Swart at University College, London, from 1985 to 2000. He subsequently became a research professor at Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton for the last part of his career. He is the author of 'The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1740 (1995). The four volumes of his survey of the Western Enlightenment, 1) Radical Enlightenment (2001) 2) Enlightenment Contested (2006); 3) Democratic Enlightenment (2011); and 4) The Enlightenment that Failed (2019) were products of his work at the IAS.