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The Scottish Enlightenment's model of history was a universal progression from savagery to civil society, whereby women emancipated themselves and men left barbarism behind. Such a conception, however, elided problematic questions: Why were the Americans still 'savage'? Why had only Europe completed this process? Could modern societies escape the decadence of earlier empires? Now available for the first time in English, this definitive study teases out the contradictions and complexities of the Scottish Enlightenment, showing how its unresolved tensions between universalism and hierarchy, progress and reaction, defined its contribution to modernity.