Conclusion
‘Intellectually, Voltaire is our contemporary, but his daily life was radically different from ours.’ These words by Fernand Braudel seem an apt characterization of the Age of Enlightenment.
Despite the scientific discoveries and other changes that have taken place since the eighteenth century, we can identify with Voltaire and other intellectuals at the time, while we can hardly imagine their daily life, the number of servants needed for a comfortable bourgeois life, the absence of lavatories, showers, electric heating, cars, railways and planes, the stinking streets and the general poverty, the exposure to diseases and the lack of what we would consider elementary medical care. In other words, little had changed regarding social and economic conditions from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century compared to what happened later, while a great deal had happened in the intellectual field: increased literacy, an enormous increase in the publication of books and papers and the formation of a public opinion. Politically, something corresponding to modern parliamentary government had been introduced in two countries, Britain and Sweden. In most others, some modifications of absolutism had taken place, in the form of Enlightened Despotism, including increased freedom of expression, judicial reforms and in some countries, notably Prussia, a more efficient and professional bureaucracy. In the leading country on the Continent, France, this clearly proved insufficient and the Revolution led to the destruction of the Old Regime. It remains an open question whether reform would have continued in other parts of Europe; in any case, the reaction against the French Revolution put an end to it for a long time.Notes
1 Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory, p. 294.
2 For the following, see Habermas, Strukturwandel and Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory, pp.
456-521.3 See e.g. Melve, Inventing the Public Sphere, vol. I, pp. 1-42.
4 Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages, p. 194. The attribution to Bernhard stems from John of Salisbury.
5 Tocqueville, Democracy in America, pp. 652-3.
6 Lukes, Individualism, pp. 1—9.
7 On Hobbes and other theorists of the monarchical state, see also Skinner, ‘From the State of Princes’ and Visions of Politics, vol. III, Hobbes and Civil Science.
8 Monod, Power of Kings, pp. 269—71.
9 Riley, ‘Social Contract Theory and its Critics’, pp. 362—9.
10 Winch, ‘Scottish Political Economy’.
11 Hankins, ‘Preface’, pp. xvii—xviii.
12 Mason, ‘Optimism, Progress and Philosophical History’; Richter, ‘The Comparative Study’; O’Brien, ‘English Enlightenment’; cf. Abbatista, ‘The Historical Thought’ and Alan, ‘Scottish Historical Writing’.
13 Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory, pp. 385—92.
14 Ibid., p. 286.
15 Ibid., p. 478.
16 Roche, ‘Encyclopedias and the Diffusion of Knowledge’.
17 Dalong, ‘De la conversation à la creation’.
18 For the following, see Blanning, Frederick II, pp. 342—66.
19 Hoppit, Land of Liberty, pp. 13—50; Goldie, ‘The English System of Liberty’, pp. 40—78.
20 Hoppit, Land of Liberty, p. 24.
21 For a detailed case study of the political system in the early eighteenth century, see Graham, Corruption.
22 Fukuyama, The Origins, pp. 321—35.
23 For the following, see Rosen, Svensk historia, vol. I, pp. 540—716; Carlsson, Svensk historia, vol. II, pp. 91—203 and Hein, ‘Cultural Europeanization’, pp. 604—5.
24 In Sweden, the usual date is 30 November, as Sweden at the time still used the Julian calendar. It was the last country in Western Europe to change, in 1753, one year after Britain.
25 Fukuyama, Political Order, pp. 126—34.
26 For the following, see Clark, Iron Kingdom, pp. 312—44 and Fukuyama, Political Order, pp. 66-80.
27 Blanning, The Culture of Power, pp. 430-1.
28 Thus, Fukuyama, Political Order, p. 433, who credits the king with the reform and points to fierce resistance from the landowners.
29 Feldbcvk, Danmarks historie, vol. IV, pp. 146-94 and ‘V^kst og reformer’, pp. 302-8.
30 Knudsen, ‘Ministerialsystemet’, pp. 465-75.
31 Seip, Det opinionsstyrte enevelde; more critical is Rian, Sensuren, pp. 575-628.
32 For the following, see Bonney, ‘France 1494-1815’; Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory, pp. 337-43; Ladurie, The Ancient Regime, pp. 494-513; Collins, From Tribes to Nation, pp. 481-537; Doyle, The Ancien Regime, pp. 1-36 and French Revolution, pp. 1-85.
33 Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory, pp. 348-9.
34 Collins, From Tribes to Nation, pp. 481-92.
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