An Essay on the History of Civil Society

Adam Ferguson’s Essay on the History of Civil Society (first published in 1767) is a classic of the Scottish - and European - Enlightenment. Drawing on such diverse sources as classical authors and contemporary travel literature, Ferguson offers a complex model of historical advance which challenges both Hume’s and Smith’s embrace of modernity and the primitivism of Rousseau. Ferguson combines a subtle analysis of the emergence of modern commercial society with a critique of its abandonment of civic and communal virtues. Central to Ferguson’s theory of citizenship are the themes of conflict, play, political participation and military valour. The Essay is a bold and novel attempt to reclaim the tradition of active, virtuous citizenship and apply it to the modern state.

• Classic work of the Enlightenment, by a figure at the centre of the eighteenth-century Scottish intellectual milieu • Draws on classical literature, travel writing, and Ferguson’s knowledge of the Gaelic communities where he was brought up • Theme of active citizenship an important one today

1. Of the general characteristics of human nature; 2. Of the history of rude nations; 3. Of the history of policy and arts; 4. Of the consequences that result from advancement of civil and commercial arts; 5. Of the decline of nations; 6. Of corruption and political slavery.