An enjoyable read, although it’s quite hard to keep all the names straight sometimes: the author tends to introduce characters in several places before really providing their backgrounds, which makes the narrative a little non-linear. The focus seems to be more on how Edinburgh changed rather than its effects on the wider world: the former are dealt with far more thoroughly than the latter. Having said all that, this is a great overview of the Scottish Enlightenment and its main protagonists,

3/5. Finished Thursday 20 December, 2012.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)