The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe & America 1760-1800

Palmer's most important work of historical scholarship is The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe & America 1760-1800. Published in 2 volumes: The Challenge ('59) which won the Bancroft Prize in History & The Struggle ('64). This masterwork traced the growth of two competing forces--ideas of democracy & equality, on one hand, & the growing power of aristocracies in society, on the other--& the extraordinary results of the collision between these forces, including both the American & French Revolutions. The book foreshadowed the development in the 1990s & early 2000s of ideas of Atlantic history & global history, & remains to this day a valuable resource for scholars. In 1971 he published a slightly revised & condensed version of the 2nd volume as The World of the French Revolution.