The Eighteenth Century

T.C.W. Blanning is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge.

Reviewed along side "The Nineteenth Century" by same author, "compendious, informed, instructive, readable and easy to handle....evoke thoughtful, colourful and lively essays...For scholars and specialists their most rewarding aspect is the way all contributions examine traditional and up-to-the-minut interpretation, pointing out interpretative virtues and shortcomings and providing perspectives that are the more satisfying for being tentative rather than totalitarian. Statements are backed by information, generalizations carry corroboration, statistics are soberly (and moderately)used, less for support than for illumination. Maps, chronological tables and suggestions for further reading also prove helpful...Tim Blanning and his colleagues have done justice to the fraught, fantastic times they have had to grapple with", Eugen Weber, TLS, 15th December 2000

• List of Contributors ; Introduction: The Beneficiaries and Casualties of Expansion, ; Politics and the State in Eighteenth Century Europe ; Orders and Classes: Eighteenth Century Society Under Pressure ; The European Economy in the Eighteenth Century ; Religion and Culture ; International Rivalry and Warfare ; Europe and the Rest of the World ; Conclusion: The French Revolution and Beyond ; Further Reading ; Chronology ; Maps ; Index