The Enlightenment

i want to start with the enlightenment. And is an area that i'm increasingly interested in, and mainly because i'm i'm pretty ignorant about it, so i'm trying to educate myself. Many people would argue there is an american enlightenment, which is primarily about political science and political thought. But within that, i think the crucial questions that emerge are, what, what pre existed them? What contributed and shaped what they did? What were their goals? And who's within the circle of the enlightenment? And soi that, to me, marks a lot of questions.