Skip to Main Content

The Union of 1707: New Dimensions: Scottish Historical Review Supplementary Issue

Online ISBN:
9780748672295
Print ISBN:
9780748638024
Publisher:
Edinburgh University Press
Book

The Union of 1707: New Dimensions: Scottish Historical Review Supplementary Issue

Christopher Whatley (ed.)
Christopher Whatley
(ed.)
Find on
Published:
10 December 2008
Online ISBN:
9780748672295
Print ISBN:
9780748638024
Publisher:
Edinburgh University Press

Abstract

This book brings together chapters that in May 2007 were presented at a Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) conference organised to mark the 300th anniversary of the Union of 1707. One of the guiding objectives of the RSE event was to showcase the work of younger historians, and to present new work that would provide fresh insights on this defining moment in Scotland's (and the United Kingdom's) history. The seven chapters range widely, in content and coverage, from a detailed study of how the Church of Scotland viewed the Union and how concerns about the Kirk influenced the voting behaviour in the Scottish Parliament, through to the often overlooked broader European context in which the British parliamentary union — only one form of new state formation in the early modern period — was forged. The global War of the Spanish Succession, it is argued, influenced both the timing and shape of the British union. Also examined are elite thinking and public opinion on fundamental questions such as Scottish nationhood and the place and powers of monarchs, as well as burning issues of the time such as the Company of Scotland and trade. Other topics include an investigation of the particular intellectual characteristics of the Scots, a product of the pre-Union educational system, which, it is argued, enabled professionals and entrepreneurs in Scotland to meet the challenges posed by the 1707 settlement. As one of the chapters argues, Union offered the Scots only partial openings within the empire.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close