Miller: Cockburns Millennium - Hardcover

Karl Miller

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674136381 ISBN 13: 9780674136380

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1976

Synopsis

Henry Cockburn (1779-1854), a leading Scottish Whig of the nineteenth century, author of the classic Memorials of His Time, is perhaps the least-known of Scotland's famous men. 'Small, solid and genuine', in Carlyle's phrase, Cockburn gave himself to a variety of pursuits. As Advocate, Court of Session judge, orator, historian and poet, he fought for, and drafted, the Scottish Reform Bill of 1832 - with its momentous extension of the franchise - and he played a scarcely less significant part in the Victorian contest between Kirk and Judiciary. He broke with his father's principles, those of a sensible strong-minded lawyer and leading Scottish Tory, and became a 'man of sense' himself - an Edinburgh patriarch and sage, but of romantic sensibility, who would turn away from public commitments to take pleasure in the past and the pastoral seclusion of the neighbouring Pentland Hills.

Karl Miller's sustained study of Cockburn, the first of its kind, was published in 1975. It makes use of manuscript materials to present a new picture of Cockburn's career and mental life, and presents him as one of a generation of thinkers and artists who succeeded to the Scottish Enlightenment.

Cockburn's Millennium contains rich digressions on the outlook of the Scottish Whigs, on the world of the Edinburgh review, and on the Tory world-picture by which Cockburn and his friends were confronted and which included the genius of Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg. Cockburn is the protagonist of a work which ranges with penetration and wit over important issues of Scottish life and culture.

About this title

About the Author

Karl Miller founded the London Review of Books in 1979, and went on to edit it for many years. Formerly literary editor of the Spectator and the New Statesman, and editor of the Listener, he was also Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London. Among his books are Cockburn's Millennium and Doubles, which Alan Massie has described as two of 'the most illuminating books about Scotland to have appeared in my lifetime.' Karl Miller's vivid portrait of James Hogg, Electric Shepherd, appeared in 2003.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1976
• ISBN 10: 0674136381
• ISBN 13: 9780674136380
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 332