Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll and 1st Earl of Ilay, lived a long and very active life as soldier, lawyer, politician, patron and businessman. History remembers him on the one-hand as courageous, good-natured, learned and accomplished - and, on the other, as 'a man of little truth, little honour, little principle'. His substantial political career, driven by gaining and increasing his power and that of his friends, is poorly documented, since many of his private papers have vanished. The author's interest in Argyll as a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment - which became a...

"Ralph McLean and Humming Earth have made a huge contribution to eighteenth-century Scottish studies by giving us a new edition of John Home's Douglas (long out of print) along with facsimiles of three dozen contemporary broadsides, pamphlets, proclamations, and advertisements relating to the play. These primary sources may well generate a resurgence of interest in Douglas, in Home and his work, in the Scottish stage, in cultural identity as a national and religious issue, in the rise of the two ecclesiastical parties within the Church of Scotland, and in the supporting roles played by...