In Habermas's view, the growth in newspapers, journals, reading clubs, Masonic lodges, and coffeehouses in 18th-century Europe, all in different ways, marked the gradual replacement of "representational" culture with "Öffentlichkeit" culture. Habermas argued that the essential characteristic of the "Öffentlichkeit" culture was its "critical" nature. Unlike "representational" culture where only one party was active and the other passive, the "Öffentlichkeit" culture was characterized by a dialogue as individuals either met in conversation, or exchanged views via the print media. Habermas maintains that as Britain was the most liberal country in Europe, the culture of the public sphere emerged there first around 1700, and the growth of "Öffentlichkeit" culture took place over most of the 18th century in Continental Europe. In his view, the French Revolution was in large part caused by the collapse of "representational" culture, and its replacement by "Öffentlichkeit" culture. Though Habermas's main concern in "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere" was to expose what he regarded as the deceptive nature of free institutions in the West, his book had a major effect on the historiography of the French Revolution.