Social change in the Age of Enlightenment

Eighteenth-century Edinburgh was the cradle of the Scottish Enlightenment and a city of international significance. The lives and ideas of its prominent figures have received extensive treatment, but little attention has been paid to the society which produced them. In this wide-ranging study of Edinburgh over a century of social change, R. A. Houston offers unrivalled breadth of analysis of the ways in which urban life was transformed. Chapters on social relationships, the use of space, the place of the poor in Scotland's capital, religious values and attitudes to urban living, riot, and popular protest, and developments in political economy build up to a powerful argument about social change in the decades before the Enlightenment. As well as providing unique depth of context for Enlightenment studies, this book explains how broader changes in social attitudes and values took root in a century which witnessed dramatic political, economic, and intellectual developments. It is a major contribution not only to Scottish but also to British history.