Scott H., Simms B. Cultures of Power in Europe during the Long Eighteenth Century

New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. — 400 p.This original volume seeks to get behind the surface of political events and to identify the forces which shaped politics and culture from 1680 to 1840 in Germany, France and Great Britain. The contributors, all leading specialists in the field, explore critically how ‘culture’, defined in the widest sense, was exploited during the ‘long eighteenth century’ to buttress authority in all its forms and how politics infused culture.
Individual essays explore topics ranging from the military culture of central Europe through the political culture of Germany, France and Great Britain, music, court intrigue and diplomatic practice, religious conflict and political ideas, the role of the Enlightenment, to the very new dispensations which prevailed during and after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic watershed. The book will be essential reading for all scholars of eighteenth-century European history.Hamish Scott is Wardlaw Professor of International History at the University of St. Andrews. His recent publications include The Emergence of the Eastern Powers, 1756–1775 (2001) and The Birth of a Great Power System, 1740–1815 (2006).Brendan Simms is Reader in the History of International Relations at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Peterhouse. His previous publications include The Impact of Napoleon: Prussian High Politics, Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Executive, 1797–1806 (1997) and as an editor with Torsten Riotte, The Hanoverian Dimension in British History, 1714–1837 (2007).