The Age of the Democratic Revolution

<p>For the Western world the period from 1760 to 1800 was the great revolutionary era in which the outlines of the modern democratic state came into being. Here for the first time in one volume is R. R. Palmer's magisterial account of this incendiary age. Palmer argues that the American French and Polish revolutions&#151;and the movements for political change in Britain Ireland Holland and elsewhere&#151;were manifestations of similar political ideas needs and conflicts. Palmer traces the clash between an older form of society marked by legalized social rank and hereditary or self-perpetuating elites and a new form of society that placed a greater value on social mobility and legal equality.<br><br>Featuring a new foreword by David Armitage this Princeton Classics edition of <i>The Age of the Democratic Revolution</i> introduces a new generation of readers to this enduring work of political history.</p>