Europe: Privilege and Protest, 1730-1789

by Olwen H. Hufton

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.

Genres: History, European History

Paperback

First published February 15, 1980

About the author

Olwen Hufton DBE is one of the foremost historians of early modern Europe and a pioneer of social history and of women's history. She is an expert on Early Modern, western European comparative socio-cultural history with special emphasis on gender, poverty, social relations, religion and work. In 2006 she joined Royal Holloway as a part-time Professorial Research Fellow in the History Department.

Olwen Hufton is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Reviews

[John Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A “text” book I suppose; but one that is surprisingly readable and very well written. I particularly enjoyed chapters on the Habsburg Lands, Prussia and Russia. Prof Hufton taught me years ago and her style of writing helped me recall her lectures: very articulate.

This period saw struggle between the centralization of the state (for 'state' usually read 'monarchy') versus noble/other privilege.

Centralization was perhaps most successful in Prussia, owing to the shrewdness of Frederick II (the Great) and his father Frederick Wm I. Frederick the Great inherited a royal domain largely intact and managed efficiently and the King therefore had more independence from the constitutional checks imposed on his fellow European monarchs. They needed to get taxes granted by their assemblies. Fred the Great was able to balance bureaucracy and nobility and cross pollenate both which lead to the aggrandisement of the state and the monarchy– and the birth of Prussianism?

Habsburgs were weak to begin with. Difficulty raising money to pay for the monarchy. Joseph II, a text book enlightened despot was an interesting character but an unlucky one. His tomb bears the inscription he chose: “Here lies the man who failed in everything he did”.

Russia with its bureaucratic military nobility dependent on the monarchy which in turn was dependant upon it. Its ruler, Catherine the Great (German) had many of her nobles educated in the west and they returned to Russia critical of her autocracy and increasingly repressive regime.

Spain and Portugal conformed less to the pattern of Enlightened Despotism, apart from a bit of window dressing.

The Chapter on The United Provinces (modern day Netherlands and Belgium) was heavy going – Town v Country, Orangeist v Patriot.

France – OH's specialism. The centralisation of the monarchy faced great opposition from the nobility and privilege and the parlements. A crisis of credit resulted from the need to finance vast monarchical expenditure. The Revolution did what the monarchy would have liked to do – abolish a vast amount of privilege, especially clerical exemption from taxation. Unfortunately for Louts XVI and Marie Antoinette they lost their heads, literally, in the process.

Only the USA – outside Europe – could point to advancement of democracy. Otherwise power was in the hands of people with wealth, however little. Great Britain was governed jointly by the aristocracy and gentry (Houses of Commons and Lords).

Sweden would fluctuate between a growing centralisation of the monarchy and an increasingly strengthened nobility, leading to the “noble” assassination of Gustav III.

Plenty to think about!

[Rafa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uno de los volúmenes menos atractivos de la serie que trata la historia de Europa y donde contrata con los volúmenes firmados por Parker o Elliot. El texto está escrito casi como si de un libro de texto se tratara y en muchos casos en el peor de los sentidos. Se hace pesado por momentos y se termina más por inercia que por interés.

[Steven Heywood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very readable summary of the state of power politics in eighteenth century Europe once you get past the introductory chapters which employ a peppershot delivery of extremely extensive references with little in the way of context or narrative flow. The accounts of the politics of individual states or groups of states are well worth the effort involved in getting there.