In this volume an interesting attempt is made to present economic thought for a certain time and place, Scotland from the seventeenth to late nineteenth centuries. The book is chronologically divided into 14 chapters as follows. An introduction and overview, 11 chapters dedicated to specific economists, and two chapters discussing the impact of the Scottish tradition on the teaching and practice of economics at Scottish universities. The editors argue that the Scottish tradition has certain distinct traits and that it needs to be assessed in terms of “national identity,” which they argue is “material to the content of national economic thought” (p. 1). The specifically Scottish context is thus emphasized from the beginning. Emphasis has been put on the economists commencing and closing the Enlightenment period, i.e., John Law, Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Sir James Steuart, and Adam Smith. The later period is addressed through studies on James Mill, John Ramsay McCulloch, Thomas Chalmers, and John Rae. Even though the selection is not entirely surprising, the editors deserve credit for including also less-commented-upon economists such as Law and Rae.

The reviewer believes that it is possible to divide the various articles into two different groups or categories, depending on their focus. The first category we may label descriptive, the second comparative. Carl Wennerlind's innovative take on Hume may be categorized under the former heading, with its in-depth focus on one author's specific contribution. In his article he is able to show how Hume resolved the dilemma of the dual nature of “commercial modernization,” with economic progress on the one hand, and proletarization on the other. Andrew Skinner's article on Steuart also follows this descriptive approach to great success. The second category of articles aims instead to triangulate one author, for example Hutcheson, against a second or third one, say Smith or Pufendorf, in order to show how different concepts evolved and were subsequently built upon. This comparative approach is also developed in the two articles discussing the influence of Isaac Newton on Smith's methodology. The combination of these two categories in one volume has its pros and cons, as what one article lacks in depth, the other will lack in scope. The book therefore suffers from some incoherence as regards the relationship between different articles; but after having read the whole volume, the reader is left with a feeling of having grasped the Scottish tradition fairly well.

What is specific about the Scottish tradition? The editors argue that, except for James Mill, who would turn towards the utilitarian principles of Bentham and Ricardo after moving to London, they all subscribed to the following scientific principles: an acceptance of the limitations of theory; recognition of sociological and psychological aspects of theory appraisal; concern with practical issues; preference for breadth of understanding; integration of different disciplines; and derivation of (contestable) principles from experience (p. 3f). The idea that Scottish economic thought has unique traits is not entirely new. It was for example emphasized by Istvan Hont and Michael Ignatieff in Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983). We do not contest this idea of national originality, but an interesting approach for a book like this would have been to investigate the possibility that Scottish thought was perhaps equally a creative result of a successful cross-national fertilization of different contributions. That there might be some truth to this is actually evidenced in some of this volume's articles. The cosmopolitanism of Steuart and Smith is well documented, and so is the influence of the early contributions of Pufendorf on the shaping of Scottish thought. The importance of Newton's scientific revolution has already been noted. These influences were all developed in different places of Europe, and helped form part of a larger community of scholars.

That the development in the outside world can be traced also in Scottish thought is no secret of course, and the topic is picked up by Sheila Dow in the book's postscript. Dow argues that even though Scottish thought did not develop in isolation, there were also “institutional arrangements” in politics, law, and education that were specific to Scotland, and which helped shape its intellectual tradition (p. 246). She rightfully expounds the tremendous impact the works of Hume and Smith had on the development of political economy and modern economics (pp. 247–52). That historical context informs the development of social sciences in general, and that the Scottish context was crucial in particular, is thus recognized by Dow. But the role of history and institutions throughout the book plays only a peripheral role, and without denying Scotland's distinctive character, one is left asking exactly how the Scottish context came to shape its intellectual tradition.

All essays combine to make this an important contribution to the study of history of economic ideas. It provides many rare insights, in particular to the subtleties of the Scottish tradition and the different persons who populated this school. Anyone with an interest in political economy and Scottish thought should benefit from this book, and it can serve as a springboard to further research, one would hope of the original texts themselves. An updated work on the economic history of Europe may also prove useful as additional background to the various debates.