Europe: Privilege and Protest: 1730–1789

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.

Author′s Note.

Introduction.

Part I: Traditional Structures and the Forces of Change.

1. Social and Economic Development.

2. The World of Privilege.

3. The World of Ideas.

4. Armies, Interests and Conflicts.

Part II: Central and Eastern Europe.

5. The Holy Roman Empire.

6. The Habsburg Lands.

7. Prussia.

8. Russia.

Part III: The Western World.

9. Vanished Supremacies: The Iberian Peninsula.

10. The United Provinces.

11. France of the Old Regime.

12. The Old Order Changeth.

Conclusion.

Select Bibliography.

Index.

Olwen Hufton The author is a Leverhulme Professor of History at Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford. She was Professor of History at Reading University until 1987 when she became William Kenan Professor of History at Harvard, a post which she held until 1991. From 1991 to 1997 Olwen Hufton was a Professor in the Department of History and Civilisation at the European University Institute in Florence.

Review of the Previous Edition:

"It is an integrated view set out by a historian of great learning, acumen and distinction. No one teaching or learning about the eighteenth century should neglect it." London Review of Books <!––end––>

Review of the Second Edition:

"Hufton follows a historiographic paradigm which results in her writing a truly European history, rather than a mere addition of national histories. Similarly, the complex interpretation of the interactions between political, social, and economic factors in each of the chapters creates a panoramic view on the European state(s) of the eighteenth century which is an intellectual pleasure to explore for students and experienced scholars alike." H–Net Reviews