Bibliograph

Crowded with genius, the Scottish enlightenment : Edinburgh's moment of the mind, James Buchan

Type

Label

Crowded with genius, the Scottish enlightenment : Edinburgh's moment of the mind, James Buchan

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-414) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Crowded with genius

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

52962979

Responsibility statement

James Buchan

Sub title

the Scottish enlightenment : Edinburgh's moment of the mind

Summary

In the early eighteenth century, Edinburgh was a filthy backwater town synonymous with poverty and disease. Yet by century's end, it had become the marvel of modern Europe, home to the finest minds of the day and their breathtaking innovations in architecture, politics, science, the arts, and economics -- all of which continue to echo loudly today. Adam Smith penned The Wealth of Nations. James Boswell produced The Life of Samuel Johnson. Alongside them, pioneers such as David Hume, Robert Burns, James Hutton, and Sir Walter Scott transformed the way we understand our perceptions and feelings, sickness and health, relations between the sexes, the natural world, and the purpose of existence. In Crowded with Genius, James Buchan beautifully reconstructs the intimate geographic scale and boundless intellectual milieu of Enlightenment Edinburgh. With the scholarship of a historian and the elegance of a novelist, he tells the story of the triumph of this unlikely town and the men whose vision brought it into being

Classification