H.M. Scott – författare

Each book in this series is designed to make available to students important new work on key historical problems and periods that they encounter. Each volume, devoted to a central topic or theme, contains specially comisssioned essays from scholars in the relevant field. These provide an assessment of a particular aspect, pointing out areas of development and controversy and indicating where conclusions can be drawn or where further work is necessary, while an editorial introduction reviews the problem or period as a whole. In this text the contributors assess reform and reformers in late 18th century Europe, covering such topics as Catherine the Great, the Danish reformers, the Habsburg Monarchy and events in Spain and Italy.

The heyday of the European states system was in the century before the First World War. How the system of five great powers in conscious equilibrium came into being is the central theme of this book.