Europe : privilege and protest, 1730-1789 / Olwen Hufton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hufton, Olwen H.

Series:

Blackwell classic histories of Europe

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Europe--Politics and government--18th century.

Europe.

Politics and government.

Europe--Social conditions--18th century.

Social conditions.

Europe--Economic conditions--18th century.

Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

vii, 288 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, UK ; Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers, 2000.

Summary:

The new edition of this classic book provides readers with an introduction to a key period in modern European history. The second edition has been updated in the light of recent scholarship and includes a fully revised bibliography.

In the eighteenth century the claims of monarchs and even privileged aristocracies to unquestioned obedience and of the Church to a monopoly of truth were challenged by an increasingly secular and literate society. Reason, the rights of the individual to freedom from arbitrary government and increased tolerance shaped discourses of opposition. A growing population pressing on food supplies and the fiscal demands of governments with expansionist ambitions in America, Asia or central and eastern Europe contributed to confrontation and dissent.

Professor Hufton provides a fascinating account of the undermining of an archaic social order, top heavy with courts, bureaucracies and standing armies in different European contexts. She demonstrates how privilege was countered with protests which provoked constitutional crises and generated popular violence precipitating Europe into an age of revolution.

Contents:

Part I Traditional Structures and the Forces of Change 5

1 Social and Economic Developments 7

2 The World of Privilege 28

3 The World of Ideas 46

4 Armies, Interests and Conflict 67

Part II Central and Eastern Europe 101

5 The Holy Roman Empire 103

6 The Habsburg Lands 112

7 Prussia 137

8 Russia 157

Part III The Western World 179

9 Vanished Supremacies: The Iberian Peninsula 181

10 The United Provinces 201

11 France of the Old Regime 212

12 The Old Order Changeth 247.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [266]-277) and index.

ISBN:

0631215131

0631213813

OCLC:

44266432