Includes bibliographical references (p. [255]-259) index.

Machine generated contents note: X Politics and the state in eighteenth-century Europe -- Julian Swann -- European states: Monarchies, republics, and despotisms -- High politics -- Enlightened absolutism -- Corporate politics -- Representative politics -- Politics and the people -- Radicals and republicans -- Conclusion -- 2 Orders and classes: eighteenth-century society -- under pressure -- Christof Dipper -- The stages of demographic expansion -- The dissolution of the society of orders -- estate-owners -- tenants -- peasants -- rural labours -- industrial workers -- high finance -- lews -- Poverty and poor relief -- Social forces making for continuity -- the nobility -- townspeople -- The image of society -- 3 The European economy in the eighteenth century -- Sheilagh Ogilvie -- Agriculture -- Industry -- Trade -- 4 Religion and culture -- Derek Beales -- Religion, to mid-century -- Culture before the middle of the century -- Religion, enlightenment, and culture from mid-century to 1789 -- Epilogue: the French Revolution -- 5 International rivalry and warfare -- John A. Lynn -- The old regime, 1700-1789 -- the international system -- the military system -- the practice of war -- the war of the Spanish Succession -- the war of the Austrian Succession -- the Seven Years War -- Revolution and Empire, 1789-1815 -- revolutionary change and international continuity, 1789-1802 -- war and partition, 1792-1795 -- Napoleon's military revolution, 1802-1812 -- the apogee of Napoleon, 1805-1807 -- the formation of the Concert of Europe -- 6 Europe and the rest of the world -- P. J. Marshall -- Europeans outside Europe -- empires in the Americas -- the crisis of the American empires -- Asian trade -- new empires in Asia -- European perspectives -- the benefits of expansion -- envisaging new worlds -- Conclusion: the French Revolution and beyond -- T C. W. Blanning -- Further Reading -- Chronology -- Maps -- Europe in 1715 -- Europe in 1789 -- Europe in 1815 -- Europeans in Asia in the eighteenth century -- Partitions of Poland -- The Americas in the eighteenth century -- Index.