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General History of Europe
Eighteenth Century Europe, 1713-1789
"This introduction surveys all aspects of European life in the eighteenth century on a continent wide basis. It is distinctive in its comprehensive treatment of eastern as well as western Europe and in the coverage of the European colonial empires. Key themes include: society, economic life, government, monarchy, diplomacy and international relations, education and cultural life, expansionism, enlightenment, and religion and the churches." Ranging widely from the emergence of Russia to the rise of Prussia, across the Mediterranean states and Anglo-French interaction, the text has been strengthened and focused.
Paperback
First published January 28, 1930
About the author
M.S. Anderson
37 books6 followersMatthew Smith Anderson, known as M.S. Anderson, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics, 1972-85, was one of the most successful and influential historical textbook writers of his generation.
Thanks to his reading skill in Russian and several other languages, his treatment of Europe covered East as well as West, whereas previous books had often had (as he once mildly remarked) "a strong French emphasis".
Matthew Anderson was an authentic Scot. Born in Perth and educated at Perth Academy and Edinburgh University, after Second World War service in the RAF between 1942 and 1945 (as navigator, bomber crew) he returned to Edinburgh, completed his degree, began his doctoral thesis, on "British Diplomatic Relations with the Mediterranean, 1763-1778", and became an Assistant.
His departure in 1949 to an Assistant Lectureship at the London School of Economics thus marked a real uprooting, although he never ceased to feel a great debt to his Edinburgh teachers, above all Richard Pares. On Pares's advice, Anderson began learning Russian, and, after completing his thesis in 1952, embarked on his first book, Britain's Discovery of Russia, 1558-1815 (1958). Another of his Edinburgh teachers, Denys Hay, invited him to undertake the 18th-century volume in Longman's History of Europe, and thus led him to discover his métier.
Europe in the Eighteenth Century, 1713-1783 (1961) became a recognised classic, translated into French, Spanish and Italian, with new editions in 1976, 1987 and 2000, each embodying substantial alterations and additions. A briefer volume for Oxford University Press, Eighteenth-Century Europe, 1713-1789 (1966), also proved highly successful, especially in its North American and Spanish editions. By the time of his death, these two volumes together had sold not far short of 150,000 copies. Anderson had indeed "rescued the 18th century from long-undeserved neglect".
In 1972 appeared The Ascendancy of Europe: aspects of European history, 1815-1914. Two other less general books also secured wide readerships: The Eastern Question, 1774-1923 (1966) and Peter the Great (1978). Altogether he published 11 books with the needs of students in mind, and in every case his publishers (most often Longman, now Pearson Education) found themselves dealing with an academic who not only wrote superbly saleable copy, but even delivered it ahead of the date laid down in his contract.
He also published some 20 learned articles, and contributed two chapters to the New Cambridge Modern History and many more to multi-authored volumes, as well as writing in later years personal diaries and memoirs not for publication.
Important though writing always was to him, between 1972 and his retirement in 1985 his growing responsibilities at the London School of Economics took priority. Not only was he much concerned in building up the International History Department (of which he was Convenor in 1972-75), but from 1973 until 1981 he was heavily involved in the work of the school's Publications Committee, while in 1981-85 he chaired the Graduate School Committee, arguably the school's most important committee.
Thanks to his reading skill in Russian and several other languages, his treatment of Europe covered East as well as West, whereas previous books had often had (as he once mildly remarked) "a strong French emphasis".
Matthew Anderson was an authentic Scot. Born in Perth and educated at Perth Academy and Edinburgh University, after Second World War service in the RAF between 1942 and 1945 (as navigator, bomber crew) he returned to Edinburgh, completed his degree, began his doctoral thesis, on "British Diplomatic Relations with the Mediterranean, 1763-1778", and became an Assistant.
His departure in 1949 to an Assistant Lectureship at the London School of Economics thus marked a real uprooting, although he never ceased to feel a great debt to his Edinburgh teachers, above all Richard Pares. On Pares's advice, Anderson began learning Russian, and, after completing his thesis in 1952, embarked on his first book, Britain's Discovery of Russia, 1558-1815 (1958). Another of his Edinburgh teachers, Denys Hay, invited him to undertake the 18th-century volume in Longman's History of Europe, and thus led him to discover his métier.
Europe in the Eighteenth Century, 1713-1783 (1961) became a recognised classic, translated into French, Spanish and Italian, with new editions in 1976, 1987 and 2000, each embodying substantial alterations and additions. A briefer volume for Oxford University Press, Eighteenth-Century Europe, 1713-1789 (1966), also proved highly successful, especially in its North American and Spanish editions. By the time of his death, these two volumes together had sold not far short of 150,000 copies. Anderson had indeed "rescued the 18th century from long-undeserved neglect".
In 1972 appeared The Ascendancy of Europe: aspects of European history, 1815-1914. Two other less general books also secured wide readerships: The Eastern Question, 1774-1923 (1966) and Peter the Great (1978). Altogether he published 11 books with the needs of students in mind, and in every case his publishers (most often Longman, now Pearson Education) found themselves dealing with an academic who not only wrote superbly saleable copy, but even delivered it ahead of the date laid down in his contract.
He also published some 20 learned articles, and contributed two chapters to the New Cambridge Modern History and many more to multi-authored volumes, as well as writing in later years personal diaries and memoirs not for publication.
Important though writing always was to him, between 1972 and his retirement in 1985 his growing responsibilities at the London School of Economics took priority. Not only was he much concerned in building up the International History Department (of which he was Convenor in 1972-75), but from 1973 until 1981 he was heavily involved in the work of the school's Publications Committee, while in 1981-85 he chaired the Graduate School Committee, arguably the school's most important committee.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 29, 2016
I think I have to stop reading basic histories. But I like reading basic histories. Since I never remember what I read, it's like starting all over again. But I must remember something since I'm starting to get a bit bored.... This was a decent basic history. I thought the beginning of the book was good especially the section on the wars.
March 6, 2021
Through this book we enter a Europe where daily life strictly followed local habits and traditions: where one’s birth and location determined one’s occupation and how one carried it out, one’s range of opportunities, one’s horizons of understanding and belief, and even the style of dress one could wear. In the 18th Century, this universe of local societies and rarely challenged customs began to feel tremors portending change.
Matthew Anderson, a Scot, was a man of facts. He practiced historical writing as “a disinterested inquiry into the facts of the past” rather than the creation of what he calls “edifying stories” about great men or great ideas.
In this book he sets straight to work with comprehensive chapters on “the vast structure of traditional rights” in society, and their regional variations; and on economics. He shows how commerce, early industries, and financial institutions developed steadily in a few Western European states, while the East lagged far behind.
Anderson then hits his stride through eight chapters on domestic and international politics: rulers’ attempts at reform and centralization; continual disruptions and rebalances of international power relations; conflicts between Britain and France over colonial territories in America and Asia; the successful American war of independence, supported by France; the dramatic rise of Prussia and Russia as major powers; and the decline of the Ottoman empire. His discussion of each of these topics is detailed, thorough, and brilliant.
Of less interest to Anderson are the great personalities that shaped this era. His descriptions of Peter I (the Great) of Russia and Charles XII of Sweden fall far short of the telling anecdotes about them contained in Richard Dunn’s survey of 17th Century Europe. One wishes for more insight on the personalities and motivations of Joseph II of Austria, Frederick II of Prussia, and Catherine II of Russia. Anderson instead stays focused on their policies and actions, with a passing quip that Frederick II’s “flute-playing, [and] the reams of bad French poetry he wrote” were of little significance.
The book’s fourth edition (2000) includes revisions as well as two additional chapters. In the first of these Anderson surveys and critiques the Enlightenment. This was, he says, “a style, a set of attitudes” among a small intellectual elite who tended to consider all social and political problems as legacies of the past – especially feudal and Church traditions – to be cleared up by the triumph of reason. The Enlightenment “philosophes” lacked interest in understanding institutions and social structures which Anderson shows were in fact deeply rooted and profoundly influential. Their ideas were therefore unrealistic.
In a crisp few pages on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Anderson identifies the totalitarian tendency in his political ideas – state control of economy, education, and morals – which contrasts with Rousseau’s passionate expression of individual feelings and sensibility.
Anderson brilliantly concludes his case by citing the German philosopher J. G. Herder, who began writing in the 1760s. Herder believed that individual happiness and fulfillment depend on belonging to a historically rooted nation. His respect for the value of history, community, and the “heart and soul” of national language defied the abstract, universal claims of the Enlightenment and its naïve assumption that national cultures can be ignored.
Anderson’s final additional chapter presents a well-supported explanation why, though revolutionary movements arose in several other countries, only France succumbed. France’s problems were rooted, he argues, in debts from the three wars she joined during the century, for which France paid much higher rates of interest than Britain. This burden aggravated other economic pressures. Growing deficits forced the government to seek new revenue. Its attempts to establish a uniform land tax antagonized aristocrats and gentry. The faltering leadership of Louis XVI let the crisis spin out of control, and he lost all support. First Paris, then most of Europe would be drenched in blood in the name of the revolution’s ideals.
With these additions, Anderson has “owned” the 18th Century for five decades. It’s likely he will do so into the next century.
Matthew Anderson, a Scot, was a man of facts. He practiced historical writing as “a disinterested inquiry into the facts of the past” rather than the creation of what he calls “edifying stories” about great men or great ideas.
In this book he sets straight to work with comprehensive chapters on “the vast structure of traditional rights” in society, and their regional variations; and on economics. He shows how commerce, early industries, and financial institutions developed steadily in a few Western European states, while the East lagged far behind.
Anderson then hits his stride through eight chapters on domestic and international politics: rulers’ attempts at reform and centralization; continual disruptions and rebalances of international power relations; conflicts between Britain and France over colonial territories in America and Asia; the successful American war of independence, supported by France; the dramatic rise of Prussia and Russia as major powers; and the decline of the Ottoman empire. His discussion of each of these topics is detailed, thorough, and brilliant.
Of less interest to Anderson are the great personalities that shaped this era. His descriptions of Peter I (the Great) of Russia and Charles XII of Sweden fall far short of the telling anecdotes about them contained in Richard Dunn’s survey of 17th Century Europe. One wishes for more insight on the personalities and motivations of Joseph II of Austria, Frederick II of Prussia, and Catherine II of Russia. Anderson instead stays focused on their policies and actions, with a passing quip that Frederick II’s “flute-playing, [and] the reams of bad French poetry he wrote” were of little significance.
The book’s fourth edition (2000) includes revisions as well as two additional chapters. In the first of these Anderson surveys and critiques the Enlightenment. This was, he says, “a style, a set of attitudes” among a small intellectual elite who tended to consider all social and political problems as legacies of the past – especially feudal and Church traditions – to be cleared up by the triumph of reason. The Enlightenment “philosophes” lacked interest in understanding institutions and social structures which Anderson shows were in fact deeply rooted and profoundly influential. Their ideas were therefore unrealistic.
In a crisp few pages on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Anderson identifies the totalitarian tendency in his political ideas – state control of economy, education, and morals – which contrasts with Rousseau’s passionate expression of individual feelings and sensibility.
Anderson brilliantly concludes his case by citing the German philosopher J. G. Herder, who began writing in the 1760s. Herder believed that individual happiness and fulfillment depend on belonging to a historically rooted nation. His respect for the value of history, community, and the “heart and soul” of national language defied the abstract, universal claims of the Enlightenment and its naïve assumption that national cultures can be ignored.
Anderson’s final additional chapter presents a well-supported explanation why, though revolutionary movements arose in several other countries, only France succumbed. France’s problems were rooted, he argues, in debts from the three wars she joined during the century, for which France paid much higher rates of interest than Britain. This burden aggravated other economic pressures. Growing deficits forced the government to seek new revenue. Its attempts to establish a uniform land tax antagonized aristocrats and gentry. The faltering leadership of Louis XVI let the crisis spin out of control, and he lost all support. First Paris, then most of Europe would be drenched in blood in the name of the revolution’s ideals.
With these additions, Anderson has “owned” the 18th Century for five decades. It’s likely he will do so into the next century.
September 20, 2015
A wonderful look at this period, accomplished via thematic chapters. It's very easy to read and understand, while being written in a distinct mid-20th-century style.
I would say ideally one should have a very basic chronology of wars of the era; but this is perhaps more a personal preference of my own, as to weave the themes discussed into a framework.
I would say ideally one should have a very basic chronology of wars of the era; but this is perhaps more a personal preference of my own, as to weave the themes discussed into a framework.
February 25, 2025
Professor Anderson headed up the International History Department at LSE during my time (1973-6) as an undergraduate - along with colourful figures such as Messrs Grun, Watt and Polonsky, they constituted a vibrant stimulating team. LSE is really shorthand for the London School of Economics and Political Science and looking back it seemed to me the International History Department acted like a mortar binding together and underpinning the purely economics and political fields and areas of research that became so influential on public policy (not so much now!) and in turn gaining from the flow of ideas and interactions.
A specialist in Russian history and in particular Russia's emergence as a great power from the time of Peter the Great, M S Anderson reveals in this handsome comprehensive survey of European history on the eve of the French Revolution his complete familiarity with the main trends and general layout and its shifts and checks in the balance of power across Europe conveying portraits of how each state functioned (or failed) at the time.
"Apart from a visit to Cherbourg in the 1780s to see the new harbour-works there his (Louis XVI) movements were confined entirely to a group of royal chateaux in the neighbourhood of Paris.* To the day of his death on the guillotine in January 1793 France remained to him an unknown land."
This is history in the words of a master teacher and story teller. Painting succinctly in words, the spare brush strokes of, say, a Frans Hals, able to convey both humanity and startling naturalism to the reader or viewer.
You will find no better introductory guide to this period in Europe than this good read.
* A royal visit remembered and poignantly captured in reflection in the final scenes of Ettore Scola's pan European period movie starring Marcello Mastroiani "La Nuit de Varennes"
A specialist in Russian history and in particular Russia's emergence as a great power from the time of Peter the Great, M S Anderson reveals in this handsome comprehensive survey of European history on the eve of the French Revolution his complete familiarity with the main trends and general layout and its shifts and checks in the balance of power across Europe conveying portraits of how each state functioned (or failed) at the time.
"Apart from a visit to Cherbourg in the 1780s to see the new harbour-works there his (Louis XVI) movements were confined entirely to a group of royal chateaux in the neighbourhood of Paris.* To the day of his death on the guillotine in January 1793 France remained to him an unknown land."
This is history in the words of a master teacher and story teller. Painting succinctly in words, the spare brush strokes of, say, a Frans Hals, able to convey both humanity and startling naturalism to the reader or viewer.
You will find no better introductory guide to this period in Europe than this good read.
* A royal visit remembered and poignantly captured in reflection in the final scenes of Ettore Scola's pan European period movie starring Marcello Mastroiani "La Nuit de Varennes"
December 19, 2024
Terminé de leer este volumen escrito por el escocés Matthew Smith Anderson (Perth, 1922 - Londres, 2006). Se trata de una versión breve de otra obra, de título prácticamente idéntico, que el autor publicó en varias ediciones desde 1961.
El libro abarca alrededor de tres cuartos de siglo, y está segmentado convenientemente de acuerdo con cinco ejes temáticos: conflictos entre los estados europeos, sociedad y economía, gobiernos y gobernantes, vida intelectual y artística, y las interacciones de Europa con el resto del mundo. Dichos capítulos son precedidos por un resumen de la situación del continente alrededor de 1713, fecha que marca el punto de partida del texto con el Tratado de Paz de Utrecht.
A lo largo de la obra, el autor presenta un panorama amplio y bastante descriptivo, ocupándose no únicamente de los tradicionales relatos y análisis francocentristas, sino también abordando las situaciones de los Estados de la Europa Oriental, tales como el dominio del Imperio Otomano, el auge de Rusia como potencia insospechada, y el declive de Polonia. Resulta de gran interés el tratamiento que se da de los sucesos como una serie de intrincados factores múltiples, resultado de su momento y desarrollo particular, y no como una inevitabilidad. Todo ello culmina, sin embargo, con el proceso revolucionario suscitado en la Francia de Luis XVI, tomando en consideración la influencia que tuvieron otras regiones sobre el desarrollo intelectual europeo.
Se trata de una lectura amena, fluida, informativa y flexible en términos de las opiniones y conclusiones presentadas. Si bien se nota la edad del texto, considero prudente la recomendación para quien tenga un interés general por el periodo sin querer profundizar en detalles engorrosos.
El libro abarca alrededor de tres cuartos de siglo, y está segmentado convenientemente de acuerdo con cinco ejes temáticos: conflictos entre los estados europeos, sociedad y economía, gobiernos y gobernantes, vida intelectual y artística, y las interacciones de Europa con el resto del mundo. Dichos capítulos son precedidos por un resumen de la situación del continente alrededor de 1713, fecha que marca el punto de partida del texto con el Tratado de Paz de Utrecht.
A lo largo de la obra, el autor presenta un panorama amplio y bastante descriptivo, ocupándose no únicamente de los tradicionales relatos y análisis francocentristas, sino también abordando las situaciones de los Estados de la Europa Oriental, tales como el dominio del Imperio Otomano, el auge de Rusia como potencia insospechada, y el declive de Polonia. Resulta de gran interés el tratamiento que se da de los sucesos como una serie de intrincados factores múltiples, resultado de su momento y desarrollo particular, y no como una inevitabilidad. Todo ello culmina, sin embargo, con el proceso revolucionario suscitado en la Francia de Luis XVI, tomando en consideración la influencia que tuvieron otras regiones sobre el desarrollo intelectual europeo.
Se trata de una lectura amena, fluida, informativa y flexible en términos de las opiniones y conclusiones presentadas. Si bien se nota la edad del texto, considero prudente la recomendación para quien tenga un interés general por el periodo sin querer profundizar en detalles engorrosos.
March 21, 2019
Es un buen rápido resumen completo de la historia europea del siglo XVIII.
June 29, 2024
Flott introduksjon til 1700-tallets Europa.
Denne stod på min pensumliste for mange år siden, var på tide å få lest hele boka.
Både tematiske kapitler, og mer tradisjonelt hendelsesorienterte kapitler.
Denne stod på min pensumliste for mange år siden, var på tide å få lest hele boka.
Både tematiske kapitler, og mer tradisjonelt hendelsesorienterte kapitler.
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January 19, 2017The first two chapters are the old tedious school, with many proper nouns and dates exposed almost as a list.
In the third chapter, we finally come to more appealing events of the Enlightenment. There is also an opportune and acute analysis to help understanding the dramatic transformations this century witnessed.
In the third chapter, we finally come to more appealing events of the Enlightenment. There is also an opportune and acute analysis to help understanding the dramatic transformations this century witnessed.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews