Enlightenment and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Europe (International Library of Historical Studies)

The eighteenth century was a unique period of global and fundamental change. Britain conquered India and much of America, the American Revolution produced the USA, and Russia expanded vastly. In the field of ideas the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century was consolidated and followed by the Enlightenment. Nationalism flourished, populations surged and the Commercial and Industrial Revolutions with Western technology eclipsed the East. Few centuries have inspired such a galaxy of historians, and their groundbreaking work has been drawn upon by Derek Beales in his collection of articles and special lectures. He covers the whole European kaleidoscope but especially Joseph II and the Habsburg monarchy, and sees Enlightened Despotism as the embodiment of the century's revolution in ideas, policies, government and administration. The 18th century was a unique period of global and fundamental change. Britain conquered India and much of America, the American Revolution produced the USA, and Russia expanded vastly. In the field of ideas the Scientific Revolution was consolidated and followed by the Enlightenment. Nationalism flourished, populations surged, and the Commercial and Industrial Revolutions with Western technology eclipsed the East. Few centuries have inspired such a galaxy of historians, and their groundbreaking work has been drawn upon by Derek Beales in his collection of articles and special lectures. He covers the whole European kaleidoscope, but focuses especially on Joseph II and the Hapburg monarchy, asserting that Enlightened Despotism was the emodiment of the century's revolution in ideas, politics, government and administration. Enlightened ideas and attitudes, and the policies influenced by them, are commonly explained by twentieth-century historians as in some sense the product of social forces - perhaps as the result of pressure exerted from below by a class or classes or groups, perhaps as the outcome of less easily identified but more fundamental economic and social tendencies. The 18th century was a unique period of global and fundamental change. Few centuries have produced such a galaxy of historians, and their ground-breaking work has been drawn upon by Derek Beales in his collection of articles and special lectures. Derek Beales. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [309]-313 And Index.