Rethinking the Politics of Commercial Society
The Edinburgh Review 1802–1832

This book explores the sources of modern British liberalism through a study of the Edinburgh Review.

Biancamaria Fontana (Author)

9780521069564, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 July 2008

268 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

This book explores the sources of modern British liberalism through a study of the Edinburgh Review, the most influential and controversial early nineteenth-century British periodical. Founded by a group of young Scottish intellectuals in 1802, the Review served as a principal channel through which the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment gained wider currency, and did much to popularize the doctrines of economic and political reform. As Dr Fontana shows in this lucid and keen analysis, the first thirty years in the life of the Review clearly display the new social and economic problems confronting European society in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

Preface
Introduction
1. Scottish theories of commercial society and the French Revolution
2. Adam Smith's heritage: the Edinburgh reviewers and the Wealth of Nations
3. The definition of political economy: political economy as a social science
4. The Edinburgh reviewers and the Whig party
5. Commercial society and its enemies: the debate on the First Reform Bill
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS]