The subject of this book, James Hill (1703-1776), was born into a Scotland which had been riven for half a century with political and economic conflicts, which had direct effects on his own family. King Charles II was restored to the UK throne in 1660 and a period of expansion of the arts science and trade followed in England. In Scotland, the period was quite different. Charles was the head of an Episcopalian church and was determined that Presbyterian Scotland should return to this form of worship. There followed years of persecution and mutual intolerance. James received his medical education as an apprentice to an Edinburgh surgeon, George Young who was closely involved in the Scottish Enlightenment. His apprenticeship was followed by two years at sea. He then returned to his home region of Dumfries and started to practice surgery in 1732, continuing there until 1776. As this book shows, he achieved a grand reputation as a surgeon, and was respected not only locally, but also in neighbouring counties and the capital. His greatest contribution was in the treatment of head injuries, treating 18 cases, of which only three died. Two of these had untreatable injuries and the third refused surgery. The book notes that, despite James Hill’s close relationship to the harshness of religious conflicts, this does not seem to have been a major influence on him. On the other hand, the Enlightenment was clearly important given his attitude to prefer his own observations to the teachings of past authorities. His reputation persisted for a century after his death, but has since gradually faded, and, as such, this book documents the contribution of a most important surgeon in the management of cranial trauma.

The seventeenth century was one of the most dramatic periods in Scotland's history, with two political revolutions, intense religious strife culminating in the beginnings of toleration, and the modernisation of the state and its infrastructure. This book focuses on the history that the Scots themselves made. Previous conceptualisations of Scotland's "seventeenth century" have tended to define it as falling between 1603 and 1707 - the union of crowns and the union of parliaments. In contrast, this book asks how seventeenth-century Scotland would look if we focused on things that the Scots themselves wanted and chose to do. Here the key organising dates are not 1603 and 1707 but 1638 and 1689: the covenanting revolution and the Glorious Revolution. Within that framework, the book develops several core themes. One is regional and local: the book looks at the Highlands and the Anglo-Scottish Borders. The increasing importance of money in politics and the growing commercialisation of Scottish society is a further theme addressed. Chapters on this theme, like those on the nature of the Scottish Revolution, also discuss central government and illustrate the growth of the state. A third theme is political thought and the world of ideas. The intellectual landscape of seventeenth-century Scotland has often been perceived as less important and less innovative, and such perceptions are explored and in some cases challenged in this volume. Two stories have tended to dominate the historiography of seventeenth-century Scotland: Anglo-Scottish relations and religious politics. One of the recent leitmotifs of early modern British history has been the stress on the "Britishness" of that history and the interaction between the three kingdoms which constituted the "Atlantic archipelago". The two revolutions at the heart of the book were definitely Scottish, even though they were affected by events elsewhere. This is Scottish history, but Scottish history which recognises and is informed by a British context where appropriate. The interconnected nature of religion and politics is reflected in almost every contribution to this volume.SHARON ADAMS is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Freiburg. JULIAN GOODARE is Reader in History at the University of Edinburgh.Contributors: Sharon Adams, Caroline Erskine, Julian Goodare, Anna Groundwater, Maurice Lee Jnr, Danielle McCormack, Alasdair Raffe, Laura Rayner, Sherrilynn Theiss, Sally Tuckett, Douglas Watt