Written for general reader, considers the achievement of this particular period of Scottish history. This book attends not only to the ideas that made the Scottish Enlightenment such a noted moment, but also to the people themselves who generated these ideas - men such as David Hume and Adam Smith.

Alexander Broadie is a Professor of Logic and Rhetoric at Glasgow University - a chair once occupied by Adam Smith - and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has published many books on Scottish thought.