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This history of a formative period of Europe's past provides both a concise review of the main developments, in the light of contemporary academic scholarship, and an interpretation that hinges on the gradual erosion of the ancien regime, "the world we have lost", and the generation of forces destined to transform it into the world we live in. "Europe 1600-1800" explores the unease developing from the growing differential between the labouring poor and the ruling elites of gentleman landlords, clergymen, state servants, lawyers and those in the commercial and financial sectors. In 1789, the former still lived in self-sustaining communities but the latter's mental horizons were changing dramatically and they only held on to tradition to maintain the social hierachy that preserved their control. But rational reform cannot work within traditional structures of authority and privilege. The ancien regime could not modernise itself; it took the French Revolution to do that.