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A Union for Empire

A Union for Empire

A Union for Empire

Political Thought and the British Union of 1707
John Robertson, St Hugh's College, Oxford
November 2006
Available
Paperback
9780521029889
£38.00
GBP
Paperback
GBP
Hardback

    This volume of essays explores 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. It investigates the ideas of union, universal monarchy and empire current in Europe and Britain before 1707, focuses on the issues of sovereignty at the centre of the Union debate itself and 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.

    • This volume will transform the historical understanding of the Union of 1707
    • Contributions from leading scholars which reflect the growing interest in Scottish intellectual development during the Enlightenment
    • Major addition to the study of 'unions' generally

    Product details

    November 2006
    Paperback
    9780521029889
    392 pages
    228 × 152 × 24 mm
    0.591kg
    6 tables
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Notes on contributors
    • Preface
    • Part I. Unions, Universal Monarchy and Empire:
    • 1. Empire and union: two concepts of the early modern European political order John Robertson
    • 2. The English debate over universal monarchy Steven Pincus
    • 3. Power, commerce and natural law in Daniel Defoe's political writings 1698–1707 Laurence Dickey
    • 4. The Scottish vision of empire: intellectual origins of the Darien venture David Armitage
    • Part II. The Scottish Setting:
    • 5. Scottish cultural change 1660–1710 and the Union of 1707 Roger L. Emerson
    • 6. Religious realignment between the Restoration and Union Colin Kidd
    • Part III. The Issues of Sovereignty:
    • 7. Protestant theologies, limited sovereignties: natural law and conditions of union in the German Empire, the Netherlands and Great Britain James Moore and Michael Silverthorne
    • 8. An elusive sovereignty. The course of the Union debate in Scotland 1698–1707 John Robertson
    • 9. From 'Revolution principles' to Union: Daniel Defoe's intervention in the Scottish debate Katherine R. Penovich
    • 10. Scottish Law, Scottish lawyers and the status of the Union John W. Cairns
    • Part IV. Union and Empire in the Eighteenth-Century British World:
    • 11. Ireland without Union: Molyneux and his legacy Jacqueline Hill
    • 12. The legacy of British Union for the North American colonies: provincial elites and the problem of Imperial Union Ned Landsman
    • 13. Empire, state and confederation: the War of American Independence as a crisis in multiple monarchy J. G. A. Pocock
    • Index.
      Contributors
    • John Robertson, Stephen Pincus, Laurence Dickey, David Armitage, Roger L. Emerson, Colin Kidd, James Moore, Michael Silverthorne, Katherine R. Penovich, John W. Cairns, Jacqueline Hill, Ned Landsman, J. G. A. Pocock

    • Editor
    • John Robertson , St Hugh's College, Oxford