Capital of the Mind
£9.99
Capital of the Mind—How Edinburgh Changed the World
How Edinburgh's Enlightenment thinkers changed the world
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About the Ebook
In the early 18th 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 economies - all of which continues 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.
James Buchan beautifully reconstructs the intimate geographic scale and boundless intellectual milieu of Enlightenment Edinburgh. With the scholarship of an 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.
Why You'll Love This Ebook
- Discover how Edinburgh's Enlightenment thinkers changed the world
- Explore philosophy, science, medicine, and economics in one era
- Engage with a sweeping account of intellectual history
- Read another celebrated title from Origin - an imprint of Birlinn Ltd
Reviews
'Creates a psychogeography as lovely as Edinburgh's own — a breathless chronicle of the fondness of genius for its own company' Sunday Observer
'Does for 18th-century Edinburgh what Roy Porter's Enlightenment: How Britain Created the Modern World did for Britain' BBC History Magazine
'Buchan's confident and astringent study is based on an informed love of Scotland — its stories are told to excellent effect' Daily Telegraph
'A triumph of fact-based, imaginatively expressed writing' Magnus Magnusson
'As Buchan says in this marvellous book, "there is no city like Edinburgh in all the world' Sunday Times
'An elegant portrait of Edinburgh in the age of Enlightenment' Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
James Buchan is a novelist and critic. He is the author of the Persian Bride, a New York Times Notable Book, as well as Frozen Desire, an examination of money that received the Duff Cooper Prize. He has also won the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize. Buchan is a contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The New York Observer, and a former correspondent for the Financial Times. He lives in Norfolk, England.Publication Details
Publisher: Origin (an imprint of Birlinn Ltd)
Publication Date: 01 November 2012
Print Length: 448 pages (Ebook edition)
ISBN (Ebook): 9780857904850
Format: Ebook
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