New Books in British Studies

← New Books in British Studies1. Sept. · 52 Min.

Aonghus MacKechnie, "Edinburgh: City of Romanticism" (Lund Humphries, 2026)

Aonghus MacKechnie, "Edinburgh: City of Romanticism" (Lund Humphries, 2026)1. Sept.52 Min.

Romanticism made Scotland famous. It critically shaped the course of

Scottish culture, while impacting on cultures elsewhere and inaugurating

the country’s still-flourishing

and lucrative tourist industry. This book is about Edinburgh’s most

emblematic architecture over the long 19th century: the castellated and

stone built

cityscape of national revivalist architecture. It reveals why Scotland

had by the 1820s become one of Europe’s great centres of Romanticism,

due both to the majestic Highlands, and to Edinburgh itself as city of

Romanticism. Additionally, Edinburgh developed as the main centre and

hub for travellers drawn to Romantic Scotland through the work of James

‘Ossian’ Macpherson and Sir Walter Scott: visitors including Schinkel,