Suchergebnisse

The pamphlet war which surrounded the debates of the proposed Union between Scotland and England in 1707 has frequently been dismissed as a mere sideshow to the main events that took place in the Scottish Parliament. Until recently, the accepted viewpoint was that as only the landed elites possessed the vote, it was only they who could decide the political destiny of the country – the wider populace was largely an irrelevancy. However, the political speeches of the Scotsman, John Hamilton, Lord Belhaven, and the response to those speeches, by English man of letters, Daniel Defoe, suggests that the poetry and prose generated by these intense debates had a purpose to speak directly to the people, and to galvanise them for a cause, despite their lack of a direct political voice. This article investigates the importance of Belhaven's speeches in an attempt to understand why they had so much resonance with the general public, and the extent to which his opponents attempted to contain his appeal to the people.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- PART I. The Theory and Practice of Associational Life -- 1 Politeness, Sociability, and the "Little Platoon": Associational Theory in the Scottish Enlightenment -- 2 Buildings, Associations, and Culture in the Scottish Provincial Town, c. 1700–1830 -- PART II. Professional Men and Their Societies -- 3 Medical Societies and the Scottish Enlightenment -- 4 Professors, Merchants, and Ministers in the Clubs of Eighteenth-Century Glasgow -- PART III. Clubs, Societies, and Literary Culture -- 5 "Soaping" and "Shaving" the Public Sphere: James Boswell's "Soaping Club" and Edinburgh Enlightenment Sociability -- 6 The "Bohemian Club": A Study of Edinburgh's Cape Club -- 7 "Caledonia's Bard, Brother Burns": Robert Burns and Scottish Freemasonry -- 8 Inventing the Public Sphere: Fictional Club Life in Ireland and Scotland -- PART IV. Gender and Associational Culture -- 9 Achieving Manhood in Associational Culture: Student Societies and Masculinity in Enlightenment Edinburgh -- 10 Women's Associations in Scotland, 1790–1830 -- Acknowledgments -- Bibliography -- Notes on Contributors -- Index