Unique among the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Ferguson saw two eighteenth-century revolutions, the American and the French. This monograph contains essays that range across all of Ferguson's works to investigate his engagement with contemporary events and his contributions to our understanding of history and human action.

Introduction, Eugene Heath, Vincenzo Merolle; Part I Life and Works; Chapter 1 Ferguson’s Epistolary Self, John D. Brewer; Chapter 2 Ferguson and Scottish History: Past and Present in an Essay on the History of Civil Society, David Allan; Chapter 3 Ferguson’S Use of the Edinburgh University Library: 1764–1806, Jane B. Fagg; Part II In History; Chapter 4 Ferguson’s Reflections Previous to the Establishment of a Militia, David Raynor; Chapter 5 Ferguson’s Views on the American and French Revolutions, Yasuo Amoh; Chapter 6 Political Education for Empire and Revolution, David Kettler; Part III On History; Chapter 7 Ferguson, Roman History and the Threat of Military Government in Modern Europe, Iain McDaniel; Chapter 8 Ferguson’s ‘Appropriate Stile’ in Combining History and Science: The History of Historiography Revisited, Annette Meyer; Part IV Human Nature, Action and Progress; Chapter 9 Ferguson’s Politics of Action, Fania Oz-Salzberger; Chapter 10 Ferguson and the Active Genius of Mankind, Craig Smith; Chapter 11 Providence and Progress: The Religious Dimension in Ferguson’s Discussion of Civil Society, Jeng-Guo S. Chen;