The Scottish Enlightenment's Secret Radical Network

The Story of Scotland: Clans, Crowns, and the Fight for Identity — Fexingo History · Oct 7, 2026 · 8m · transcript

While the previous episodes have explored the broad strokes of Scotland’s intellectual explosion, this episode pulls back the curtain on the intimate social machinery that made it possible. We focus on the Select Society and the broader network of Edinburgh’s 'Republic of Letters,' where figures like Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, and David Hume didn't just write books—they debated them over port and pipe tobacco in private rooms. We examine how these men navigated the tension between the Moderate Party within the Church of Scotland and their own radical…