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Oscar Wilde's disastrous libel suit against the Marquess of Queensberry dominated British newspapers during the spring of 1895. This book shows that the Wilde scandal was just one of many events to capture the public's imagination that year. Had Jack the Ripper returned? Did the Prime Minister have a dreadful secret? Were Aubrey Beardsley's drawings corrupting the nation? Were overpaid foreign players ruining English football? Could cricket save a nation from moral ruin? Freak weather, flu, a General Election, industrial unrest, New Women, fraud, accidents, anarchists, balloons and bicycles all stirred up interest and alarm. The book shows how this turbulent year is at the same time far removed from our own day and strangely familiar. It interweaves literature, politics and historical biography with topics such as crime, the weather, sport, visual art and journalism to give an overarching view of everyday life in 1895. The book draws on diverse primary sources, from the Aberdeen Weekly Journal to the Women's Signal Budget, and from the Illustrated Police News to The Yellow Book; and is illustrated with stills from plays and reproductions of newspaper front pages, to bring Victorian culture to life.

Few scholars can claim to have shaped the historical study of the long eighteenth century more profoundly than Professor H. T. Dickinson, who, until his retirement in 2006, held the Sir Richard Lodge Chair of British History at the University of Edinburgh. This volume, based on contributions from Dickinson's students, friends and colleagues from around the world, offers a range of perspectives on eighteenth-century Britain and provides a tribute to a remarkable scholarly career. Dickinson's work and career provides the ideal lens through which to take a detailed snapshot of current research in a number of areas. The book includes contributions from scholars working in intellectual history, political and parliamentary history, ecclesiastical and naval history; discussions of major themes such as Jacobitism, the French Revolution, popular radicalism and conservatism; and essays on prominent individuals in English and Scottish history, including Edmund Burke, Thomas Muir, Thomas Paine and Thomas Spence. The result is a uniquely rich and detailed collection with an impressive breadth of coverage.

Scotland in Revolution, 1685–1690 is a study of the transformative reign of the Catholic King James VII and the revolution that brought his fall. Whereas previous accounts concentrate on high politics, this book draws on neglected sources to examine the relationship between central power and the Scottish localities. James was a radically experimental ruler, who granted unprecedented religious toleration and intervened systematically in urban government. The book begins with a chapter surveying the principal political developments of the period. There follow two chapters on the major religious reform of James’s reign, the granting of toleration in 1687. Arguing that James’s religious experiment should be understood in the context of European multiconfessionalism, these chapters examine the competition and controversy engendered by the toleration. Chapter four then investigates James’s attempt to reconfigure the leadership of Scotland’s urban communities, and thereby to influence in his favour the composition of a future parliament. Chapter five is a detailed narrative of the revolutionary overthrow of James and his government in Scotland. As chapter six argues, the revolution of 1688–90 saw a reaction in favour of religious uniformity and local autonomy. But the revolution was less decisive than the union settlement of 1707–12 in determining Scotland’s future development.