What at first sight appears to be simply another hefty historical 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 Hanoverians in the half century after the Union of 1707 but also a brilliant exposition of the culture, politics and economic history 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. The scholarship is breath-taking but the writing is easy on the eye. The panel also wanted to commend the publisher for committing to a book that had been declined by other’s in the mainstream, yet has proven so exceptional.