Burton’s practice may not have amounted to much, and in 1854 he was appointed secretary to the Prison Board of Scotland and in 1877 he was made a commissioner of prisons.

But this study has the combined purpose of reappraising the achievements of Burton and of revising current perceptions of Scottish historical consciousness as the nineteenth century advanced.

In particular, Craig Beveridge traces the re-emergence of the 1707 Union as a historical issue of contemporary relevance in the context of the Scottish Rights agitation of the 1850s.

The cast of Burton’s diverse social and intellectual acquaintances was remarkable, with a prominent profile in the Edinburgh of Walter Scott, Francis Jeffrey and Henry Cockburn.

No less impressive were Burton’s varied literary endeavours, from multi-volumes of the history of Scotland to transmitting the work of David Hume and Jeremy Bentham to the Victorian age.

The author offers a detailed assessment of Burton’s famous multi-volumed History of Scotland and he identifies major themes related to Burton’s formative experiences.
This analysis, with an examination of the enthusiastic reception of the work at home and abroad, challenges an orthodox assumptions of the ‘death’ of Scottish history in the nineteenth century.

This is an academic study, replete with extensive references to original source material and the relevant contextual literature, and is essential for those interested in the modern history of Scotland.

Recovering Scottish History: John Hill Burton and Scottish National Identity in the Nineteenth Century by Craig Beveridge. Published by Edinburgh University Press, 310pp, £24.99.