Additional information
by Michael F. Graham (Author)
Thomas Aikenhead, a sometime University of Edinburgh student, was in 1697 the last person executed for blasphemy in Britain.
Michael Graham uses the case to open a window into the world of late seventeenth-century Edinburgh and Scotland, exploring the core historical themes in a country in transition from confessional Reformation to polite, literary Enlightenment.
Graham traces the roots of the Aikenhead case and the law of blasphemy which was evolving in response to new intellectual currents of biblical criticism and deism. He analyzes Aikenhead's trial and the Scottish government's decision to uphold the sentence of hanging and details the debates surrounding the execution which were carried out in print media across Scotland and England. Aikenhead's case grew into a media event which highlighted starkly the intellectual and cultural divisions dominating late seventeenth-century Britain.
Back Jacket
This is the first modern book-length study of the case of Thomas Aikenhead, the sometime University of Edinburgh student who in 1697 earned the unfortunate distinction of being the last person executed for blasphemy in Britain. Taking a micro-historical approach, Michael Graham uses the Aikenhead case to open a window into the world of late seventeenth-century Edinburgh and Scotland. This book brings together many of the critical themes in Scottish and British history in a period of transition from the confessional era of the Reformation - which emphasised the defence of orthodox belief - to the more open civil society and polite, literary world of the Enlightenement, of which Edinburgh would become a major centre. Graham traces the roots of the Aikenhead case in seventeenth-century Scotland and the law of blasphemy which was evolving in response to the new intellectual currents of biblical criticism and deism. He analyzes Aikenhead's trial and the Scottish government's decision to uphold the sentence of hanging. Finally, he details the debate engendered by the execution, carried out in a public sphere of print media encompassing both Scotland and England. Aikenhead's case became a media event which highlighted the intellectual and cultural divisions within Britain at the end of the seventeenth century. Michael F. Graham is Professor of History at the University of Akron, Ohio
Author Biography
Michael F. Graham is Professor of History and sometime Director of the Humanities in the Western Tradition programme at the University of Akron, Ohio. His previous publications include 'The Uses of Reform: 'Godly Discipline' and Popular Behaviour in Scotland and Beyond, 1560-1610' (1996), which was awarded the Roland Bainton Prize by the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference. His research focuses on the religious, cultural and social history of early modern Britain.
