THE CULTURE OF POWER AND THE POWER OF CULTURE by T. C. W. Blanning ( 9780198227458 )

Item Details

Title:

THE CULTURE OF POWER AND THE POWER OF CULTURE
OLD REGIME EUROPE 1660-1789

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£112.50
Our price:	£112.50

ISBN 10:

0198227450

ISBN 13:

9780198227458

Availability:

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Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

14 February, 2002

Pages:

496

Description:

A great cultural revolution struck Europe in the eighteenth century with the arrival of the public sphere. Public opinion in the form of new cultural institutions such as the newspaper, the novel, and the coffee house threw down the gauntlet to established regimes. T.C.W. Blanning's fascinating new book explores the interaction of politics and culture during these final years of Old Regime Europe and shows why some regimes adapted and flourished while othersblundered blindly and died.

Synopsis:

In this fascinating new account of Old Regime Europe, T.C.W. Blanning explores the cultural revolution which transformed eighteenth-century Europe. During this period the court culture exemplified by Louis XIV's Versailles was pushed from the centre to the margins by the emergence of a new kind of space - the public sphere. The author shows how many of the world's most important cultural institutions developed in this space: the periodical, the newspaper, the novel, the lending library, the coffee house, the voluntary association, the journalist, and the critic. It was here that public opinion staked its claim to be the ultimate arbiter of culture and politics. For the established order this new force was to prove both a challenge and an opportunity and the author's comparative study of power and culture shows how regimes sought to keep their balance as the ground moved beneath their feet. In the process he explains, among other things, why Britain won the 'Second Hundred Years War' against France, how Prussia rose to become the dominant power in German-speaking Europe, and why the French monarchy collapsed.

Illustrations:

16 pp of halftone plates

Publication:

Imprint:

Oxford University Press

Prizes:

Winner of Shortlisted for the 2003 British Academy Book Prize and voted

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

ARTISANS IN EUROPE, 1300-1914 (HB)

CHRISTIANITY UNDER THE ANCIEN REGIME, 1648-1789 (PB)