Scots In London In The Eighteenth Century

Scots in London in the Eighteenth Century is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that explores, through the experiences of individuals and groups ranging from James Boswell and his circle at one end of the social spectrum to highland folk musicians at the other, the reasons why Scottish men, women, and children made the long journey south to London and their reactions to the great metropolis once there. Through the varied approaches of historians and art historians, and literary critics and musicologists, this book addresses a series of interconnected themes including the dynamics that gave rise to periodic "Scotophobia" and also generated a distinct form of Scottish social capital and eventual integration; patronage, as a type of social relationship particular to the age and to the capital city; cultural production, both high and popular; and the making of Scottish identity in London, along with the impact of London-forged Anglo-Scottish identity on Scotland and evolving notions of "Britishness." Contributing to this volume are Iain Gordon Brown, Sandro Jung, Viccy Coltman, James J. Caudle, Nigel Aston, Patricia R. Andrew, Anita Guerrini, Mary Anne Alburger, Stana Nenadic, Katharine Glover, and Jane Rendall.

The late eighteenth century witnessed an explosion of intellectual activity in Scotland by such luminaries as David Hume, Adam Smith, Hugh Blair, William Robertson, Adam Ferguson, James Boswell, and Robert Burns. And the books written by these seminal thinkers made a significant mark during their time in almost every field of polite literature and higher learning throughout Britain, Europe, and the Americas. In this magisterial history, Richard B. Sher breaks new ground for our understanding of the Enlightenment and the forgotten role of publishing during that period. The Enlightenment and the Book seeks to remedy the common misperception that such classics as The Wealth of Nations and The Life of Samuel Johnson were written by authors who eyed their publishers as minor functionaries in their profession. To the contrary, Sher shows how the process of bookmaking during the late eighteenth-century involved a deeply complex partnership between authors and their publishers, one in which writers saw the book industry not only as pivotal in the dissemination of their ideas, but also as crucial to their dreams of fame and monetary gain. Similarly, Sher demonstrates that publishers were involved in the project of bookmaking in order to advance human knowledge as well as to accumulate profits. The Enlightenment and the Book explores this tension between creativity and commerce that still exists in scholarly publishing today. Lavishly illustrated and elegantly conceived, it will be must reading for anyone interested in the history of the book or the production and diffusion of Enlightenment thought.

This impressive collection of essays is based on a two-year seminar series of the Research centre in Scottish History at the University of Strathclyde. New and original research, as well as historiographical overviews and commentaries, illuminate the study of this formative century in the creation of modern Scotland. Contributors are leading figures in their fields, and the Scottish experience is examined within an international dimension. Topics include Scottish modernisation before the Industrial Revolution, the Union of 1707, Scotland and British expansion, Scottish Jacobitism, the Catholic underground, Scottish national identity, the Scottish Enlightenment, urbanisation, demographic change, Scottish Gaeldom, Highland estate management and tenant emigration, and Scottish radicalism. Contributors: Thomas M. Devine, John R. Young, Michael Fry, Allan I. Macinnes, James F. McMillan, Alexander Murdoch, Richard J. Finlay, Jane Rendall, Bernard Aspinwall, Ian D. Whyte, Robert E. Tyson, T. C. Smout, Andrew Mackillop, Christopher A. Whatley, Elaine W. McFarland.

Women are shown to have played an important and very visible role in society at the time. Fashionable "polite" society of this period emphasised mixed-gender sociability and encouraged the visible participation of elite women in a series of urban, often public settings. Using a variety of sources (both men's and women's correspondence, accounts, bills, memoirs and other family papers), this book investigates the ways in which polite social practices and expectations influenced the experience of elite femininity in Scotland in the eighteenth century. It explores women's education and upbringing; their reading practices; the meanings of the social spaces and activities in which they engaged and how this fed over into the realm of politics; and the fashion for tourism at home and abroad. It also asks how elite women used polite social spaces and practices to extend their mental horizons and to form a sense of belonging to a public at a time when Scotland was among the most intellectually vibrant societies in Europe.

This book explores the ordinary daily routines, behaviours, experiences and beliefs of the Scottish people during a period of immense political, social and economic change. It underlines the importance of the church in post-Reformation Scottish society, but also highlights aspects of everyday life that remained the same, or similar, notwithstanding the efforts of the kirk, employers and the state to alter behaviours and attitudes.Drawing upon and interrogating a range of primary sources, the authors create a richly coloured, highly-nuanced picture of the lives of ordinary Scots from birth through marriage to death. Analytical in approach, the coverage of topics is wide, ranging from the ways people made a living, through their non-work activities including reading, playing and relationships, to the ways they experienced illness and approached death.This volume:*Provides a rich and finely nuanced social history of the period 1600-1800 *Gets behind the politics of Union and Jacobitism, and the experience of agricultural and industrial 'revolution'*Presents the scholarly expertise of its contributing authors in a accessible way*Includes a guide to further reading indicating sources for further study

The eighteenth century looms large in the Scottish imagination. It is a century that saw the doubling of the population, rapid urbanisation, industrial growth, the political Union of 1707, the Jacobite Rebellions and the Enlightenment - events that were intrinsic to the creation of the modern nation and to putting Scotland on the international map. The impact of the era on modern Scotland can be seen in the numerous buildings named after the luminaries of the period - Adam Smith, David Hume, William Robertson - the endorsement of Robert Burns as the national poet/hero, the preservation of the Culloden battlefield as a tourist attraction, and the physical geographies of its major towns. Yet, while it is a century that remains central to modern constructions of national identity, it is a period associated with men. Until recently, the history of women in eighteenth-century Scotland, with perhaps the honourable exception of Flora McDonald, remained unwritten. Over the last decade however, research on women and gender in Scotland has flourished and we have an increasingly full picture of women's lives at all social levels across the century. As a result, this is an appropriate moment to reflect on what we know about Scottish women during the eighteenth century, to ask how their history affects the traditional narratives of the period, and to reflect on the implications for a national history of Scotland and Scottish identity. Divided into three sections, covering women's intimate, intellectual and public lives, this interdisciplinary volume offers articles on women's work, criminal activity, clothing, family, education, writing, travel and more. Applying tools from history, art anthropology, cultural studies, and English literature, it draws on a wide-range of sources, from the written to the visual, to highlight the diversity of women's experiences and to challenge current male-centric historiographies.

For more than four decades, historians have devoted ever-increasing attention to the affinites that linked Scotland with the American colonies in the eighteenth century. This volume moves beyond earlier discussions in two ways. For one, the geographical coverage of the papers extends beyond the territories that became the United States to include what became Canada, The Carribean and even Africa. For another, the volume attends not only those areas in which Scotland was closely linked to the Americas, but also to those where it was not.