Each of the writers he deals with were influenced by and capitalized on certain aspects of Scottish culture in the late-18th and early 19th centuries, says Swaim, and those cultural influences
combined to forge a rhetorical approach that practically guaranteed the Scottish men of letters a dominant place in the public sphere. He covers the Edinburgh Review in and as the public sphere
1802-08; Christopher North and the review essay as conversational exhibition; Lockhart's modified amateurism and the shame of authorship; and the Presbyterian sermon, Carlyle's homiletic
essays, and Scottish periodical writing. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
