Enlightenment's Frontier The Scottish Highlands and the Origins of Environmentalism

About this book

Enlightenment's Frontier looks at the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment – which gave birth to modern-day environmentalism – and sheds new light on Scottish thinkers such as Carl Linneaus, David Hume and Adam Smith. In this groundbreaking new book, Fredrik Albritton Jonsson argues that Smith's defence of free markets was actually based on idealized notions of self-regulating natural systems. He explores Smith's liberal view of the fragile environment and compares it with rival interpretations of natural order, which stressed the need for governance. The Enlightenment was a time of great advancement in Scotland, scientifically, economically and otherwise, with nationwide literacy rates soaring above 75 percent. Jonsson argues that the mountainous highlands contributed greatly to the thinking during this time, inspiring a forgotten link between nature and virtue. He examines three key themes – population politics, internal colonization, and natural history – and says debates about the natural world influenced all three.

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Biography

Fredrik Albritton Jonsson is an assistant professor of British history at the University of Chicago. This is his first book, which he researched in Edinburgh, Stockholm and London.