A union for empire
Subtitle: political thought and the British Union of 1707
By: edited by John Robertson.
Contributors: Robertson, John, 1951-
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Cambridge, England; New York, NY, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
Subjects: Political science -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century -- Congresses.; Political science -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century -- Congresses.; Political science -- Scotland -- History -- 17th century -- Congresses.; Political science -- Scotland -- History -- 18th century -- Congresses.; Scotland -- History -- The Union, 1707 -- Congresses.; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1660-1714 -- Congresses.
Description: This volume of essays explores for the first time the intellectual context of the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707. Challenging the received view of the Union as a simple political job, it argues instead that the Union was a landmark in the history of political thought. The opening contributions investigate the ideas of union, universal monarchy and empire current in Europe and Britain before 1707.

There follow chapters devoted to intellectual and religious developments in Scotland between the Restoration and the Union, before attention is focused on the issues of sovereignty at the centre of the Union debate itself. The volume concludes by studying the aftermath of the debate in eighteenth-century discussions of Britain's relations to Ireland and the North American colonies.

. Underlining the vitality of Scottish intellectual life before the Enlightenment, the volume also gives unprecedented attention to the English view of the Union, to its European setting and to its consequences for the subsequent understanding of the British Empire. The result is a major contribution to the history of British (including Anglo-Irish and American) political thought, and more generally to the history of ideas of union and empire, which will be of wide interest.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.