Beyond the Enlightenment: Scottish Intellectual Life, 1790-1914

Explicitly address the 19th century legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment Explores the multi-stranded legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment in nineteenth-century culture Offers a fresh approach to relations of faith and unbelief in nineteenth-century Scotland Provides a multi-disciplinary account of nineteenth-century Scottish intellectual concerns, including literature, philosophy, natural science, theology, political economy, anthropology Engages with the influential thesis of George Davie on the character and history of Scottish intellectual life from Enlightenment to twentieth century This collection explores the richness of Scottish intellectual life, its currents and controversies from the French Revolution to the First World War, focusing in particular on the legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment. Offering a series of cutting-edge interventions, the contributors cast light on a range of individuals, themes and episodes from the period. Topics range from the role of women as intellectuals to the rise of a science of race, and from freethinking secularism to the debate over George Davie's influential account of 19th-century universities. Collectively, the chapters represent a pioneering overview of Scottish intellectual life during the long 19th century.

Table of Contents:
Notes on ContributorsAcknowledgements 1. Introduction: Scotland after EnlightenmentAileen Fyfe and Colin Kidd 2. The Enlightenment Legacy and the Democratic IntellectRobert Anderson 3. Dugald Stewart, William Godwin and the Formation of Political EconomyLina Weber 4. The French Revolution and the Transformation of Moderatism:The Silence of the ScribesJohn S. Warren 5. James Mackintosh: The Science of Politics after the French RevolutionRichard Whatmore 6. Scotland’s Freethinking Societies: Debating Natural Theology, 1820–c.1843Felicity Loughlin 7. Christian Isobel Johnstone: Radical Journalism and the Ambiguous Legacy of the Scottish EnlightenmentJane Rendall 8. Robert Mudie: Pioneer Naturalist and Crusading ReformerEva-Charlotta Mebius 9. Theories of Universal Degeneration in Post-Enlightenment ScotlandBill Jenkins 10. Robert Knox: The Embittered Scottish Anatomist and his Controversial Race Science in Mid-Nineteenth-Century BritainEfram Sera-Shriar 11. Thomas Carlyle and the Scottish Enlightenment Concept of SympathyJoanna Malecka 12. Covenanting and Enlightenment in Nineteenth-Century Reformed Presbyterian Political TheoryValerie Wallace 13. Andrew Lang and the Cosmopolitan ConditionCatriona M.M. Macdonald 14. Criticism and Freethought, 1880-1914Colin Kidd 15. Epilogue: The Afterlife of the Enlightenment in Scottish CriticismGerard Carruthers Index

About the Author :
Aileen Fyfe is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. She is a social and cultural historian of science and technology, and has written extensively about the communication of science, and the history of academic publishing more broadly. Her books include A History of Scientific Journals: Publishing at the Royal Society, 1665-2015 (UCL Press, 2022), Steam-Powered Knowledge: William Chambers and the Business of Publishing 1820-1860 (Chicago University Press, 2012) and Science and Salvation: Evangelicals and Popular Science Publishing in Victorian Britain (Chicago University Press, 2004). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2022. Colin Kidd is Wardlaw Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. His books include Subverting Scotland’s Past (1993), British Identities before Nationalism (1999) and The Forging of Races (2006). He is a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was co-editor of the Scottish Historical Review between 1999 and 2004.

Review :
At last, a bold new map of a period that has hitherto been simply ignored as terra incognita or dismissed as the sorry afterglow of the Scottish Enlightenment. The authors that Fyfe and Kidd have drawn together bring major landmarks on the intellectual horizon of Scotland’s long nineteenth century into clear focus for the first time, but also leave abundant signposts for others to continue the task of exploration. The history of the intellectual life of the nineteenth century has for too long been squeezed between the glories of the enlightenment and the rhetorical flourishes of the literary renaissance. In this wonderful collection Aileen Fyfe, Colin Kidd and their collaborators have written a rich and stimulating volume that restores the long nineteenth century to its proper place. [The book’s] purpose is to inspire a reconsideration of Scottish intellectual life between the French Revolution and the First World War. That it prompts questions about the organizing principles of intellectual life suggests it does just that.