How - in the eighteenth century - did a notoriously poor, alcoholic, violent and smelly town, consisting of just two long streets and 40,000 inhabitants, make such an impression on its age and on ours? So that Voltaire wrote with a dash of malice that 'today it is from Scotland that we get rules of taste in all the arts, from epic poetry to gardening'? In just 50 years Edinburgh had more impact on our ideas than any town of its size since the Athens of Socrates.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'James Buchan has written a hugely readable and comprehensive review of this volatile period in the city's life. Fascinating anecdotes and arguments sparkle across its pages, and...CAPITAL OF THE MIND is an absolute joy to read.' -- Irvine Welsh, Guardian 'James Buchan tells the extraordinary story with a novelist's narrative zip and brilliant flashes of detail ... as Buchan says in this marvellous book, "there is no city like Edinburgh in all the world."' -- Sunday Times 'Vigorous and entertaining' -- Sunday Telegraph 'A work of prodigious research and clarity of thought' -- Irish Examiner 20031227 'Thought-provoking examination of the role played by Edinburgh in the creation of the Enlightenment' -- Scottish Sunday Herald 20031221 'With a novelist's flair for pace and a prodigious eye for detail ... Capital of the Mind brings 18th-century Edinburgh vividly to life. The narrative ... is fascinating' -- The Field 20040301 'A brilliant piece of work, by far the best biography of my hometown' -- Irvine Welsh, Guardian 20040619 'There have been many books about "The Athens of the North", but none as authoritative as this' -- The Times 20040814 'Edinburgh ... laid the mental foundations for the modern world' -- Sunday Telegraph 20040808 'Buchan vigorously advances the argument announced in his title, and he writes intellectual history like the novelist he is' -- Independent 20040808 'Buchan does a scholarly job of describing this transformation' -- Halifax Daily News 20040808 'He brings us the look and smell and feel of Scotland ... The book is a triumph of fact-based, imaginatively-expressed writing' -- Magnus Magnusson, New Statesman 20040808 'For such a learned history, Mr Buchan has a clear writing style, a light touch and a irreverent sense of humour. In the more gently paced chapters on such intellectuals as David Hume and Adam Smith, he combines deft broad strokes with intricate details, shading in apparently dry subjects with innumerable and delightful anecdotes that bring the old city to life.' -- Economist 20040808 'An entertaining intellectual history ... Pungently evoking the Old Town and the planning of the new, masterfully condensing the lives and works of such titans as David Hume and Adam Smith, coolly anatomising the bogus Gaelic epics of Ossian and the newfangled cult of sentiment, and watching half-amused, half-outraged, as Boswell and Johnson career through his pages, Buchan brilliantly tells a complex story' -- Guardian 20040828
About the Author
James Buchan is both a leading novelist and a major historian and critic. He has won major literary prizes - including the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize - and his books have been translated into eleven foreign languages. His most recent novel is 'A Good Place to Die'. His controversial philosophy of money, 'Frozen Desire', won the Duff Cooper Award in 1998. He divides his time between Scotland, the Middle East and a farm in Norfolk.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intellectual history that's worth a little effort,
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This review is from: Capital of the Mind (Paperback)
Anyone who has been to Edinburgh might be surprised to think that just a few centuries ago the city occupied little more than one street down the slope of a rocky hill. And yet in this fine book (which I purchased in that city while on vacation), James Buchan captures not only the intellectual and social ferment in Edinburgh during the decades after Culloden, but also the physical escape from that stifling geography that paralleled the mental liberation. It's a combination that on this Burns Night seems a very good way to celebrate the sometimes underestimated influence of Scots culture and learning on the world.My paperback copy of "Capital of the Mind" includes on the cover an endorsement blurb from Irvine Welsh of the Guardian (or "Grauniad," as Private Eye would have it) that this is "an utterly compelling and captivating work." I have to admit I don't entirely agree. In fact, I found the first few chapters somewhat unengaging, though I admit that could be more a matter of taste and I recognize the importance of those chapters in setting the stage for what came later. It was only around page 100 or so, when the intellectual blossoming really began to take place with David Hume and Adam Smith that I was drawn into the story more completely. Still, I don't think that Buchan's look at intellectual and social history is necessarily for everyone. Simon Winchester, for example, is I think a better pure storyteller, de gustibus non est disputandum. But there's also no disputing the importance of Buchan's story, or his undoubted skill as a researcher and writer. Whether you're interested in Edinburgh and Scots culture, or tracing the currents of intellectual history and the particular influence of that city's unique mix of Calvinism and skepticism, idealism and common sense, "Capital of the Mind" has a lot to recommend it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A welcome recognition of Edinburgh's remarkable thinkers,
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This review is from: Capital of the Mind (Hardcover)
Some years ago I travelled through India and Pakistan and was impressed by the scale and durability of much of the infrastructure built by the British Raj over a century ago. As is the way of monument builders, there was often a plaque to commemorate the opening of these structures. More often than not, Scots played a prominent role in their construction.I often wondered why Scottish engineers, soldiers and administrators were so prominent among Britain's empire builders. This book provides insights into some of the answers. The non-conformist Kirk promoted rationalism, education, discipline and a sense of duty which drove much of empire building. Less positive, but also crucial to empire, were occasional streaks of fanaticism and intolerance. The social and political disasters of the first half of the 18th century swept away old ways of life and thought, which were replaced by the new thinkers and an influx of English ways. The old highland social order was largely destroyed and in many cases tenants were forced off the land to starve or seek a new life in Scotland or the new colonies. Edinburgh became the most celebrated centre for medical education in the world. Edinburgh graduates came to predominate in the army, navy and the government of India. But Edinburgh flourished intellectually and technically in many areas in the second half of the 18th century and its remarkable thinkers exerted a powerful world-wide impact. David Hume (philosophy), Adam Smith (economics), Joseph Black (chemistry), James Hutton (geology) and James Watt (steam technology) are just a few of these people who literally changed the way we think and work. The book has the mandatory chapter on women. However, in this case it is not just self-serving political correctness. Scotland had some remarkable women in this period. Anne Mackintosh, for example, brought 600 men to support the Prince against her husband's wishes "a pistol in her hand and money in the other." "Capital of the Mind" devotes a lot of space to the arts, but does not do justice to science and technology. Hutton, for one,deserves more than a cursory treatment of his epochal contributions to geology. After all, he was one of the founders of modern geology. The comings and goings of the poet Burns, on the other hand, are described in minute detail, even down to his daily changes of accomodation while visiting Edinburgh. This book is packed with facts, especially the descriptive earlier chapters. Often the facts and minute detail obscure the broader issues the book deals with. There are sufficient colour pictures of the main personalities and general views of the town, but not a single map or even a town plan. The absence of plans and maps might seem a trivial criticism, but it is not when the author relies heavily on the names of places, streets and even buildings to tell the story. Even a Scot might have challenge to follow the detailed geographical twists and turns without an atlas by his side.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fascinating Work!,
This review is from: Capital of the Mind (Paperback)
For those who have had their fair share of reading about the Scottish Enlightenment, you may think this is just another work written in a similar vein.However,the beauty of this work is that it places so many of the great Scotish characters - Hume, Smith, Blair, Hutchinson and so on- into both a historic and even architectural context.You almost feel you are walking the sheets and frequenting the taverns and meeting places with these mighty, yet very human, men. For example, so often we forget that Hume just followed on from the times of Bonnie Prince Charles and was writting at the time when the kirk held such social and political sway over everyday thought and life in Scotland. This book brings history alive and by placing our heroes in their social context, helps us to better visualize the times into which these great men from Scotland spoke. A great read! Upon opening this book, I was completely anti-social until the last page!
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