An Enlightened Duke The Life of Archibald Campbell (1682-1761), Earl of Ilay, 3rd Duke of Argyll
Roger L. Emerson
Humming Earth
SALTIRE SOCIETY SCOTTISH HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNER
What at first sight appears to be simply another hefty histori-cal biography is in fact a monumental piece of scholarship conducted over two decades and more. Scotland in the first half of the eighteenth century has become dominated by studies of Jacobites and Jacobitism. The Whigs hardly get a look in. Roger Emerson, who in this book combines the skills of several sub-disciplines of history, has written the most thorough study ever of one of Scotland’s leading Whig Han-overians in the half century after the Union of 1707 but also a brilliant exposition of the culture, politics and economic his-tory of the period. This is not only the biography of a man, albeit arguably the most important man in the country; it is also the biography of a nation as Scotland was integrated – with Argyll in the forefront – into the new United Kingdom.