Reddit mentions of The Pursuit of Glory: The Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815 (The Penguin History of Europe)

> how much would you have to spend to keep a dirt road serviceable?

You're kind of underthinking it. Keeping a road serviceable for regular traffic, especially when taking into accounts vehicles like wagons, is a lot of work. Some decent rain will turn that road into mud when there's heavy traffic, and suddenly you barely have a road anymore.

If you have nothing better to do with your time, I could actually recommend The Pursuit of Glory, which points out proper road maintenance as one of the core pillars of Europe entering the modern age.

I agree. I think even the blandest tweets, in context, can say something about the day they're written - what will people think of the plethora of "thoughts and prayers" in the future, for instance. If Syrian refugees are dying and the majority of tweets that day are about a celebrity's butt, that can be illuminating too... I just read Tim Blanning's The Pursuit of Glory and this stuck out at me:

>[Even if Louis XIV never said ‘L’etat, c’est moi,’], the heightened sense of excitement induced by the royal arrival from the chase was authentic. More securely documented is the obverse of this episode, the entry made by Louis’ great-great-great-grandson (but only next-but-one successor) in his diary for Tuesday, 14 July 1789: ‘nothing’. Even Louis XVI must have been aware that the fall of the Bastille was of some importance. What he meant by ‘nothing’ was that he had not gone hunting that day. To rephrase the Roman Emperor Titus, Louis counted a day without hunting a day lost. The following extract provides a good idea of his priorities: ‘July 1789 - Wednesday, 1st, nothing. Deputation from the Estates [General] ... Thursday 9th, nothing. Deputation from the Estates. Friday, 10th, nothing. Reply to the Deputation from the Estates. Saturday 11th, nothing. Resignation of M. Necker ... Tuesday, 14th, nothing ... October, Monday 5th, shooting party at the Chatillon Gate; killed eighty-one items of game. Interrupted by events. Left and returned on horseback.’ The ‘events’ were the ‘October Days’, when the Queen was nearly lynched by a mob of Parisians and the entire royal family was, in effect, taken prisoner and escorted back to Paris.

The Pursuit of Glory:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pursuit-Glory-Revolutions-1648-1815/dp/0143113895

It's a huge book, but interesting reading, and begins by outlining tons of minute social, political, and economic changes leading up to the Napoleonic era. I found it one of the most climactic reads, as after a lot of minutia, then the end actually just walks you through historical events, all of which suddenly make tons of sense given the environment!

Try The Pursuit of Glory: The Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815.

The answer also changes depending on the year - a horse and rider moved a lot faster in 1815 compared to 1648 thanks to the quality of the roads.

Source: The Pursuit of Glory