David Brewster and the Culture of Science in Scotland, 1793–1843

Dr Bill Jenkins is a lecturer in the School of History at the University of St Andrews, working on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust entitled ‘After the Enlightenment: Scottish Intellectual Life, c.1790-c.1843’. Jenkins received his PhD at the University of Edinburgh has published several papers in key journals, including the Journal of the History of Biology, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies and British Journal for the History of Science. He is the author of Evolution Before Darwin: Theories of the Transmutation of Species in Edinburgh, 1804–1834 (EUP, 2019).

• Chapter 1. IntroductionPART I: SCIENCE IN EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY SCOTLANDChapter 2. Politics and patronage: Science in an age of revolution, reaction and reformChapter 3. Science and religion between Enlightenment and DisruptionChapter 4. The philosophy of sciencePART II: BUILDING A LIFE IN SCOTTISH SCIENCEChapter 5. Scientific book and periodical publishing in ScotlandChapter 6. Scientific societies and associationsChapter 7. Scientific education in Scotland: Natural philosophy and the ‘democratic intellect’Chapter 8. ConclusionBibliographyArchival sourcesOnline sourcesPublished primary sourcesSecondary sources

Bill Jenkins’ deft portrait of David Brewster’s multifaceted scientific career illuminates a long-neglected period in the history of Scottish science. No other book tells us as much about the intersections of Evangelicalism, Whig politics, patronage and the cultivation of natural knowledge in post-Enlightenment Scotland as this one.