Race and the Scottish Enlightenment

Linda Andersson Burnett is a senior lecturer in the Department of History of Science and Ideas at Uppsala University, Sweden. Bruce Buchan is a professor in the School of Humanities, Languages, and Social Science at Griffith University, Australia.

Shortlisted for the Pickstone Prize 2026“In this thoughtful and sophisticated account of ‘medicine as a meta-language of empire,’ Andersson Burnett and Buchan track the ideas of famed Enlightenment thinkers and their now-forgotten students. A necessary addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of race, imperialism, and healing during the ‘age of reason.’”—Suman Seth, author of Difference and Disease: Medicine, Race, and the Eighteenth-Century British Empire“Combining intellectual, institutional, and biographical history in this groundbreaking study, Andersson Burnett and Buchan show that Edinburgh’s emergence as one of the key centers of eighteenth-century race-making was deeply intertwined with the commercial and colonial imperatives of the era.”—Andrew S. Curran, author of The Race Makers“This much-needed book reshapes the Scottish Enlightenment’s ‘science of man’ by connecting intellectual history with empire. Focusing on curriculum and colonization, the book explains why Enlightenment ideas of universal humanity became entwined with race. The authors thereby powerfully reassess Enlightenment’s global and colonial dimensions.”—Silvia Sebastiani, author of The Scottish Enlightenment: Race, Gender and the Limits of Progress“A superb fusion of global history and micro-level analysis alongside a compelling account of the ways various Edinburgh-trained figures—including explorers, doctors, imperial officials—exported racial enquiry to almost every portion of the globe.”—Colin Kidd, University of St Andrews