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THE ENLIGHTENMENT Good introductions to the Enlightenment can be found in U. Im Hof, The Enlightenment (Oxford, 1994); D. Goodman, The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Ithaca, N.Y., 1994); and D. Outram, The Enlightenment, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2005). A more detailed synthesis can be found in P. Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, 2 vols. (New York, 1966–69). See also P. H. Reill and E. J. Wilson, eds., Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, rev. ed. (New York, 2004); the beautifully illustrated work by D. Outram, Panorama of the Enlightenment (Los Angeles, 2006); and M. Fitzpatrick et al., The Enlightenment World (New York, 2004). On the social history of the Enlightenment, see T. Munck, The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History, 1721–1794 (London, 2000). Studies of the major Enlightenment intellectuals include J. Sklar, Montesquieu (Oxford, 1987); R. Pearson, Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom (New York, 2005); P. N. Furbank, Diderot: A Critical Biography (New York, 1992); and L. Damrosch, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius (Boston, 2005). On women in the eighteenth century, see N. Z. Davis and A. Farge, eds., A History of Women: Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes (Cambridge, Mass., 1993); C. Lougee, Le Paradis des Femmes: Women, Salons, and Social Stratification (Princeton, N.J., 1976); O. Hufton, The Prospect Before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe, 1500–1800 (New York, 1998); and M. E. Wiesner-Hanks, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 2000).

CULTURE AND SOCIETY Two general surveys on the arts are E. Gesine and J. F. Walther, Rococo (New York, 2007), and D. Irwin, Neoclassicism (London, 1997). On the eighteenth-century novel, see G. J. Barker-Benfield, The Culture of Sensibility: Sex and Society in the Eighteenth-Century English Novel (Chicago, 1992). On Gibbon, see W. B. Carnuchan, Gibbon’s Solitude: The Inward World of the Historian (London, 1987). On the growth of literacy, see R. A. Houston, Literacy in Early Modern Europe: Culture and Education, 1500–1800 (New York, 1988). The impact of the Enlightenment on modern views of the body can be examined in R. Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason (New York, 2004).

POPULAR CULTURE Important studies on popular culture include P. Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (New York, 1978); J. Mullan, ed., Eighteenth-Century Popular Culture (Oxford, 2000); and R. Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York, 1984).

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY RELIGIOUS HISTORY A good introduction to the religious history of the eighteenth century can be found in G. R. Cragg, The Church and the Age of Reason, 1648– 1789, rev. ed. (London, 1990). On Pietism, see R. Gawthorp, Pietism and the Making of Eighteenth-Century Prussia (New York, 1993). On John Wesley, see H. Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast: John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism, 3rd ed. (New York, 2002).

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CHAPTER 18

The Eighteenth Century: European States, International Wars, and Social Change

A 1793 portrait of Catherine the Great of Russia by Johann Lampi

© Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia/ The Bridgeman Art Library

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CHAPTER OUTLINE AND FOCUS QUESTIONS

The European States

What were the main developments in France, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, the Mediterranean states, and the Scandinavian monarchies in the eighteenth century? What do historians mean by the term enlightened absolutism, and to what degree did eighteenth-century Prussia, Austria, and Russia exhibit its characteristics?

Wars and Diplomacy

How did the concepts of “balance of power” and “reason of state” influence international relations in the eighteenth century? What were the causes and results of the Seven Years’ War?

Economic Expansion and Social Change

What changes occurred in agriculture, finance, industry, and trade during the