This new and compelling history of eighteenth-century Scotland paints a rich and detailed portrait of the country at a time when it was of truly global significance. This journey from the Union of 1707 to its centenary and beyond takes in vivid scenes from all over the country, and ranges up and down the social scale from peeresses to prostitutes, from lairds to lunatics, and covers every major aspect of national life from agriculture to philosophy.Whilst most other Scottish histories published in recent times concentrate on social and economic history, Michael Fry demonstrates that any true understanding of the nation, in the past as in the present, needs to pay at least as much attention to politics and culture. The social and the economic history show us how Scotland was integrated into Britain, whilst the political history and the cultural history show us why the integration was never complete.In this book both sides are surveyed, offering new perspectives on Scotland's experience within the Union.

Michael Fry was educated at Oxford and Hamburg Universities. He has held academic positions in Scotland at Strathclyde and Edinburgh Universities, in the US at Brown University, and in Germany at Leipzig University and the Max Franck Institute, Frankfurt. He is the author of ten books on modern Scottish history, including The Dundas Despotism (1993), The Scottish Empire (2001), Wild Scots, Four Hundred Years of Highland History (2005) and Edinburgh, a History of the City (2009). He has contributed to most major Scottish and British newspapers, and has been a regular columnist for The Scotsman, the Herald and The Sunday Times.