Reading the Scottish Enlightenment: Books and their Readers in Provincial Scotland, 1750-1820It has become commonplace in recent decades for scholars to identify in the books of the Scottish Enlightenment the intellectual origins of the modern world, but little attention has yet been paid to its impact on contemporary readers. Drawing on a range of innovatory methodologies associated with the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of the history of reading, this book explores the reception of books by David Hume, Adam Smith, William Robertson and Thomas Reid (amongst many others), assessing their impact on the lives, beliefs and habits of mind of readers across the social scale. In the process, the book offers a fascinating new perspective on the fundamental importance of personal reading experiences to the social history of the Enlightenment. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Part One Encountering Enlightenment | 21 |
Part Two Experiencing Enlightenment | 161 |
A Provincial Enlightenment? | 293 |
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Reading the Scottish Enlightenment: Books and Their Readers in Provincial ... Mark R. M. Towsey No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Aberdeen Adam Ferguson Alexander Allan associational Beattie Beattie's Blair booksellers borrowing registers Britain British Cambridge Cameron Campbell Castle Catalogue of Books century Church Church of Scotland circulating libraries collection Commonplace Book contemporary copy Craigston Craigston Castle critical culture David Hume diary Douglas Dumfries Dundee Edinburgh eighteenth eighteenth-century Scotland Elizabeth Rose English Family Ferguson George Glasgow Henry historiography History of England History of Scotland Hume’s Hume's History Ibid idem improvement Innerpeffray intellectual Irvine James James Beattie John Kames Kaufman Kirkcudbright Late Leightonian Library library catalogues literary literature loans London Lord marginalia ministers moral notes novels NRAS ODNB Philosophy polite popular Provincial Readers provincial Scotland Public Library reading experiences Reading Nation Reid Review Ridpath Robert Robertson Robertson's History Scots Scottish Enlightenment Selkirk Sermons Sher Smith social Society St Andrews St Clair Stewart Subscription Library surviving taste texts Thomas Reid tion Treatise University vols Wealth of Nations Wigtown William