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Palgrave History of Europe
Eighteenth-Century Europe
A new edition of this highly successful and influential work includes two entirely new chapters on Europe and the Outer World, and on the Revolutionary Crisis, as well as extensive revisions throughout. The book offers a wide-ranging thematic account that explores social, cultural, and economic topics, and also gives a clear analysis of historical events.
620 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 1990
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About the author
Jeremy Black
432 books197 followersJeremy Black is an English historian, who was formerly a professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).
Black is the author of over 180 books, principally but not exclusively on 18th-century British politics and international relations, and has been described by one commentator as "the most prolific historical scholar of our age". He has published on military and political history, including Warfare in the Western World, 1882–1975 (2001) and The World in the Twentieth Century (2002).
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October 22, 2014
It was once suggested that the years between 1700 and 1800 should be known as ‘Frederick’s Century’. Whilst the life and reign of Frederick II of Prussia – correspondent of Voltaire, patron of enlightenment, dirigiste moderniser – does encapsulate some of the ideas and tensions which were important in Europe in the period, ultimately even such a large life as this is too small. There is no easy shorthand for the eighteenth century. This is why it is strength of Jeremy Black’s book Eighteenth Century Europe that it seeks to give an idea of the particular and heterogeneous development of politics, society, science, culture and economics at different times and in different places across the continent.
Opening with chapters on the hostile environment, the economy and transport is a shrewd decision on the author’s part. Even in the increasingly urbanised west of Europe, agriculture was by a distance the single largest sector of the economy and it was often disrupted by war, disease or bad weather. The rural poor were at the heart of the old feudal system which still more or less prevailed across the continent and despite the scientific advances discussed later in the book, levels industrialisation were minimal. These people’s outlook was very local, and deeply conservative; they were tied by tradition and in some cases by law to their landlords, who played a key role in regional governance. The author really does what to show that, for all the claims made about the period, for most people it was actually a time of stasis rather than change.
The author seems to view the eighteenth century as time of transition rather than of transformation, certainly in the political and context; emphasising the historical importance of gradual changes – rising national debts, increasing institutionalisation and professionalisation of state bureaucracies, migration to the cities – rather than the revolutionary crisis that marked the end of the century. Indeed the chapter discussing wave of revolutionary sentiment that swept across Europe towards the end of the century feels poorly integrated with the rest of the book, a result perhaps of having not been included in the first edition.
The book is incredibly detailed and always giving several concrete examples to support the author’s arguments. As a piece of scholarship it is impressive, but there are a couple of problems with this ambitious scope. Firstly, only to a limited extent can local events taking place on one side of Europe, for instance, in the Hapsburg Empire be plausibly linked to those taking place in a completely different context, in say, Ireland. Secondly, although the analysis is perceptive on local issues, the wealth of detail sometimes prevents the author from making a larger argument about the period. Probably this is because from a positivist perspective that the eighteenth century defies a broad analysis, so much of what happened in it was incongruous with how it would later be categorised.
On balance the reader is bound, absolutely bound, to come away after reading this book with a deeper knowledge of the period, but they are unlikely to feel they have a deeper understanding. This is a book which invites the reader to draw their own conclusions based of a wide and deep pool of seemingly contradictory examples, statistics and quotations. Whilst it should be praised for this, it does necessarily make it a particularly satisfying or easy read, but, all things considered, it probably shouldn’t be.
Opening with chapters on the hostile environment, the economy and transport is a shrewd decision on the author’s part. Even in the increasingly urbanised west of Europe, agriculture was by a distance the single largest sector of the economy and it was often disrupted by war, disease or bad weather. The rural poor were at the heart of the old feudal system which still more or less prevailed across the continent and despite the scientific advances discussed later in the book, levels industrialisation were minimal. These people’s outlook was very local, and deeply conservative; they were tied by tradition and in some cases by law to their landlords, who played a key role in regional governance. The author really does what to show that, for all the claims made about the period, for most people it was actually a time of stasis rather than change.
The author seems to view the eighteenth century as time of transition rather than of transformation, certainly in the political and context; emphasising the historical importance of gradual changes – rising national debts, increasing institutionalisation and professionalisation of state bureaucracies, migration to the cities – rather than the revolutionary crisis that marked the end of the century. Indeed the chapter discussing wave of revolutionary sentiment that swept across Europe towards the end of the century feels poorly integrated with the rest of the book, a result perhaps of having not been included in the first edition.
The book is incredibly detailed and always giving several concrete examples to support the author’s arguments. As a piece of scholarship it is impressive, but there are a couple of problems with this ambitious scope. Firstly, only to a limited extent can local events taking place on one side of Europe, for instance, in the Hapsburg Empire be plausibly linked to those taking place in a completely different context, in say, Ireland. Secondly, although the analysis is perceptive on local issues, the wealth of detail sometimes prevents the author from making a larger argument about the period. Probably this is because from a positivist perspective that the eighteenth century defies a broad analysis, so much of what happened in it was incongruous with how it would later be categorised.
On balance the reader is bound, absolutely bound, to come away after reading this book with a deeper knowledge of the period, but they are unlikely to feel they have a deeper understanding. This is a book which invites the reader to draw their own conclusions based of a wide and deep pool of seemingly contradictory examples, statistics and quotations. Whilst it should be praised for this, it does necessarily make it a particularly satisfying or easy read, but, all things considered, it probably shouldn’t be.
Displaying 1 of 1 review