'Gespleten beschavingsteksten. Lezen op de millimeter als methode voor de sociale geschiedenis', in: Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis 26 (2000), p.289-308 This article deals with the question how literary methods can be used to the advantage of social history. Using a Dutch Enlightenment text on 'the cruelty of human nature' as example, it is argued that only advanced analysis on different textual levels reveals the ambivalent attitude of the socially committed author towards the social problem of slavery. Perceptive reading also reveals that this text, which presents itself at first sight as a text about the cruel character of children, non-European people, women, and lower classes, is actually a text about the behaviour of the 'civilized' male European citizen. The eighteenth-century author had difficulty choosing between critizing and identifying with European civilization - an ambivalence explained by the internal contradictions within late Enlightenment thought.