The Enlightenment: A Genealogy Book

Author clearly had a beef with Jonathan Israel's conclusion that there was a Radical undertow that drove the narrative of the more moderate Enlightened thinkers (who were also more public figures) that was inspired by the works of Spinoza alone

This is actually not what Jonathan Israel stated in the first volume of his now monumental Radical Enlightenment that just saw the publication of his 4rd volume. What Israel is stating is that it was not only Spinoza but a whole circle of philosophers around Spinoza that were responsible for this.

The writer did a failed attempt to draw The Enlightenment back to France, which I think at this stage is something no-one believes anymore. And the state that Encyclopaedia is the highlight of the Enlightenment (and not Kant's 3 Critiques) is I think a bit overreacting. Especially because there is no criteria given on ground of what this is the case. Interestingly also is that the author does not speak about the influence of Bayle's Philosophical Dictionary, through which, according to Israel most French Philosophers actually were getting their ideas. Rather gives the author a few extremely flimsy reason as the religious intolerance in the time of Louis XIV, the revocation of the Edict Of Nantes, etc. Religious intolerance was certainly a problem. But it already was since the works of John Wycliff, John Hus, the Modern Devotion Movement and was the reason why the Thirty Years War was fought out.
But about the Enlightenment in the Holy Roman Empire, Leibniz,. Wolff, etc. is again hardly a word spoken.

all in all was it too obvious that this author had an Axe to grind., so if you wish to read some better introductions to the Enlightenment, read the 2 volumes of Peter Gay, the 4 volumes of Jonathan Israel or the classic book of Ernst Cassirer.