Blanning’s account traces a profound cultural revolution that unfolded across eighteenth-century Europe, shifting the center of gravity from the royal courts, epitomized by Louis XIV’s Versailles, to a burgeoning public sphere. In this new space, a host of modern institutions took root: periodicals, lending libraries, coffee houses, voluntary associations, and the very notion of the journalist and the critic. These innovations fostered a new kind of public debate and engagement, allowing ideas to circulate and challenge the traditional monopoly of power held by monarchs and aristocrats. Blanning shows how the court’s representational culture—rooted in spectacle, patronage, and hierarchy—was gradually supplanted by a culture of opinion, where the voice of the public began to matter.

The book’s comparative approach moves across France, Britain, and the German states, illustrating both common patterns and distinctive national developments. Blanning is especially attentive to the complex relationship between the court and the public, showing that they were not always in opposition; often, they reinforced each other, as in the mutually beneficial ties between princes and literary celebrities like Goethe. Yet, as the eighteenth century progressed, the public sphere became increasingly independent and critical, culminating in the revolutionary upheavals of 1789. Blanning argues that the rise of nationalism and the mobilization of public opinion was decisive in undermining the old regime, even as the legacy of court culture persisted in new forms