New writings by Adam Ferguson are made available for the first time in this significant edition. Important re-discovered letters (and one essay) shed fresh light on his original commentary on the French Revolution, and introduce his frequent correspondent Sir James Macpherson as a key player in late Scottish Enlightenment networks.
- Anna Plassart, Open University,
Three dozen new letters from Adam Ferguson to Sir John Macpherson highlight this volume of writings from the latter part of Ferguson's career. Filled with Ferguson's characteristic wit and charm, the letters constitute a valuable addition to our knowledge of the man and his circle.
- Richard B. Sher, author of Church and University in the Scottish Enlightenment,
Stewart & Skjönsberg have provided contemporary readers with an Adam Ferguson feast in a splendidly edited and introduced set of hitherto unpublished letters and an essay on the French Revolution, in addition to providing modern editions of Ferguson’s late works and correspondence. The politics of Scottish moral philosophy in the context of enlightenment and revolution need to be reassessed in the light of their outstanding scholarship.
- Richard Whatmore, University of St Andrews,
The volume’s backbone and raison d’être remain the rediscovered manuscripts, which are usefully contextualized in a wide-ranging introduction. They depict a Ferguson who was not a backward-looking ancient republican but rather a well-informed participant in the great political upheavals that marked the late Enlightenment.
- Anna Plassart, Eighteenth-Century Scotland
a welcomed addition to Scottish Enlightenment studies.
- Mark G. Spencer, Brock University, History of European Ideas