Stress and Stability in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain: Reflections on the British Avoidance of Revolution: The Ford Lectures 1984

Ian Christie here discusses the factors that influenced the widespread acceptance of the existing social and governmental structures in the face of much pressure for revolutionary change in 18th-century Europe. He points to the distribution of wealth among the lower and middle class, the growth of industry, social support offered by the poor law, and the success of self-help organizations as rays of social cohesion that counterbalanced stress with stability and fostered resistance to the winds of anarchy.