Dr Emma Macleod

Senior Lecturer

History University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr Emma Macleod

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About me

After completing both undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, I taught in the History Department there (1994-6) before joining the University of Stirling in 1996, where I teach eighteenth-century British political history (parliamentary and popular) and the history of gender in Britain (c.1750-1930). I am currently studying the state trials for sedition and treason in the 1790s in Scotland, England, Ireland, Canada and America, from the perspective of the state in the age of Enlightenment; and co-editing the fabulous correspondence (1750-1810) between the Ayrshire Church of Scotland minister, James Wodrow, and the Midlands banker, Samuel Kenrick, held at the Dr Williams Library in London.

Award

Invited visiting professorship at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne
March 2025

Peter Nicolaisen International Fellowship at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, Monticello, Virginia
University of Virginia
August 2017


Divisional / Faculty Contribution

Head of Division, History, Heritage and Politics
Jan. 2019–July 2023


External Examiners and Validations

External examiner, MRes thesis, University of Edinburgh

External panel member, History Periodic Subject Review, University of Dundee

External examiner for non-advanced British history, University of Edinburgh
2002–2007

External examiner for non-advanced History, University of Glasgow
2017–2020

External examiner for non-advanced Scottish History, University of Edinburgh
2003–2008

External examiner of PhDs
Universities of SUNY, Stony Brook (2024); St Andrews (2021); Edinburgh (2021, 2019, 2014, 2013, 2003); Glasgow (2014); Leeds (2016); Birmingham (2010)

External examiner, Church History, BA and MTh: Edinburgh Theological Seminary
2018–2022

External examiner, M.Res. in Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh
2008–2011

External examiner, MSc in Modern British and Irish History, University of Edinburgh
2005–2011


Other Academic Activities

Co-director, Eighteenth-Century Studies at Stirling
https://www.stir.ac.uk/…century-studies/

Co-editor of the Scottish Historical Review
https://euppublishing.com/loi/shr
2018–2023

Member of the editorial board of the Statistical Accounts of Scotland Online
Statistical Accounts of Scotland Online

President of the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society
https://ecsss.org/
2024–2026


Professional membership

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Higher Education Academy

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Royal Historical Society


Supervision of Research Assistants

PhD supervision (lead)
Valerie Honeyman (completed 2012), Sheena Bedborough (2015), Fiona Duncan (2015), Elizabeth McFarlane (2015), Calum Cunningham (2023), Josh Smith (2024), Lucy Henry


Research

My research interests lie mainly in later eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British political history, particularly British attitudes to international events such as the American and French Revolutions. My publications include A War of Ideas? British Attitudes towards the French Revolutionary Wars, 1792-1802 (1998); British Visions of America, 1775-1820: Republican Realities (2013); Political Trials in an Age of Revolutions (2019, co-edited with Davis and Pentland); and The Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, vol. 1, 1750-1783 and vol. 2, 1784–1790 (2020 and 2024, co-edited with Fitzpatrick and Page). I am currently engaged in two major research projects. The first compares the state trials of the 1790s in Scotland, England, Ireland, Canada and America, from the perspective of the state in the age of Enlightenment. The second is a collaboration with Dr Anthony Page (University of Tasmania) and Dr Martin Fitzpatrick (University of Aberystwyth) to publish an edition of the important correspondence (1750-1810) between the Ayrshire Church of Scotland minister, James Wodrow, and the Midlands banker, Samuel Kenrick, held at the Dr Williams Library in London. We are currently working on volume 3, 1791–1797. I co-edited the Scottish Historical Review in 2018–2023, and I am now president of the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society (2024–2026).

Outputs (54)

Outputs

Book Chapter

Macleod E (2022) 'The 1790s: establishing the mind of government in 1820'. In: Carruthers G, Gallagher KT, Lamont C & Smith G (eds.) 1820: Scottish Rebellion: Essays on a Nineteenth-Century Scottish Insurrection. Edinburgh: Birlinn, p. 18–35. https://birlinn.co.uk/product/1820-scottish-rebellion/


Edited Book

Fitzpatrick M, Macleod E & Page A (eds.) (2020) The Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1750-1810. Volume 1, 1750-1783. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-wodrow-kenrick-correspondence-1750-1810-9780198809012?cc=gb&lang=en&#


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2019) The English and Scottish Trials of the 1790s Compared. In: Davis M, MacLeod E & Pentland G (eds.) Political Trials in in an Age of Revolutions: Britain and the North Atlantic 1793-1848. Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 79-107. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98959-4_4


Book Chapter

Davis MT, Macleod E & Pentland G (2019) Introduction: Political Trials in an Age of Revolutions: Britain and the North Atlantic, 1793-1848. In: Davis M, Macleod E & Pentland G (eds.) Political Trials in an Age of Revolutions: Britain and the North Atlantic, 1793-1848. Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98959-4_1


Book Review

Macleod E (2016) Americomania and the French revolution debate in Britain, 1789-1802. Review of: Americomania and the French Revolution debate in Britain, 1789-1802, by Wil Verhoeven, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013, 387pp., ISBN 978-1-107-04019-9 (hardback). Global Discourse, 6 (1-2), pp. 165-168. https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2015.1053249


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2015) British Radical Attitudes Towards the United States of America in the 1790s: the case of William Winterbotham. In: Pentland G & Davis M (eds.) Liberty, Property and Popular Politics: England and Scotland, 1688-1815. Essays in Honour of H.T. Dickinson. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 149-162. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-liberty-property-and-popular-politics-13437.html


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2015) British Evangelicals and the United States of America, c. 1775-c.1820. In: Cross A, Morden P & Randall I (eds.) Pathways and Patterns in History: Essays on Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Modern World in Honour of David Bebbington. London and Oxford: Spurgeon's College and the Baptist Historical Society, pp. 299-318. http://spurgeons-college.myshopify.com/products/pathways-and-patterns


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2015) Revolution. In: Garrett A & Harris J (eds.) Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century. Volume 1: Morals, Politics, Art, Religion. A History of Scottish Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 361-403. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199560677.do


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2013) Thomas Paine and Jeffersonian America. In: Newman S & Onuf P (eds.) Paine and Jefferson in the Age of Revolution. Jeffersonian America. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, pp. 209-228. http://books.upress.virginia.edu/detail%2Fbooks%2Fgroup-4514.xml?q=author%3A%22Onuf%2C%20Peter%20S.%22


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2013) Conservative reaction, c.1792-1820: the case for rejection. In: Macleod E (ed.) British Visions of America, 1775-1820: Republican Realities. The Enlightenment World, 27. London: Pickering and Chatto, pp. 73-99. http://www.tandfebooks.com/action/showBook?doi=10.4324/9781315653365; https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315653365


Book Review

Macleod E (2012) Radicalism, Reform and National Identity in Scotland, 1820-1833. Review of: Radicalism, Reform and National Identity in Scotland, 1820–1833, by Gordon Pentland (Woodbridge: Boydell P., for the Royal Historical Soc., 2008; pp.234. ISBN-10: 0861932994; ISBN-13: 978-0861932993. English Historical Review, 127 (524), pp. 195-196. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cer371


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2010) 'Thinking Minds of Both Sexes’: Patriotism, British Bluestockings, and the Wars against Revolutionary America and France, 1775–1802. In: Hagemann K, Mettele G & Rendall J (eds.) Gender, War and Politics: Transatlantic Perspectives, 1775-1830. War, Culture and Society, 1750-1850. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 247-264. http://us.macmillan.com/genderwarandpolitics


Book Review

Macleod E (2010) The Scottish People and the French Revolution. Review of: The Scottish People and the French Revolution. By Bob Harris. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2008. Pp. viii, 340. ISBN: 9781851968848.. Scottish Historical Review, 89 (2), pp. 271-272. https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2010.0218


Book Review

Macleod E (2009) Trials for Treason and Sedition, 1792-1794. Review of: Trials for Treason and Sedition, 1792-1794. Edited by John Barrell and Jon Mee. London: Pickering and Chatto. Part 1: 2006. 5 vols. ISBN: 1-85196-732-X. Part 2: 2007. 3 vols. ISBN: 978-1-85196-811-4.. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 32 (2), pp. 268-270. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-0208.2008.00065.x


Book Review

Macleod E (2007) The independent man: Citizenship and gender politics in Georgian England by Matthew McCormack. Review of: The Independent Man: Citizenship and Gender Politics in Georgian England. By Matthew McCormack. Manchester University Press. 2005. ix + 222pp. ISBN-10: 0719070554; ISBN-13: 978-0719070556. History, 92 (307), pp. 399-400. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-229X.2007.401_35.x


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2005) Scottish Responses to the Irish Rebellion of 1798. In: Brotherstone T, Clark A & Whelan K (eds.) These Fissured Isles: Ireland, Scotland and British History, 1798-1848. Edinburgh: Birlinn (Imprint: John Donald), pp. 123-140. http://www.birlinn.co.uk/book/details/These-Fissured-Isles-9781904607502/


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2005) The Scottish Opposition Whigs and the French Revolution. In: Harris B (ed.) Scotland in the Age of the French Revolution. Edinburgh: John Donald, pp. 79-98. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scotland-Age-French-Revolution-Harris/dp/1904607489


Book Review

Macleod E (2005) Pitt the younger: A life. Review of: Pitt the Younger: A Life, by Michael J Turner, London: Hambledon, 2003, 358pp. ISBN 9781852853778. English Historical Review, 120 (485), pp. 245-246. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cei094


Book Review

Macleod E (2003) Robert Owen: Owen of New Lanark and New Harmony. Review of: Robert Owen: Owen of New Lanark and New Harmony. By Ian Donnachie. East Linton: Tuckwell Press. 2000 Pp. xii, 290. ISBN 1 86232 131 0. Scottish Historical Review, 82 (214), pp. 322-323. https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2003.82.2.322


Book Review

Macleod E (2003) A unique and glorious mission: Women and presbyterianism Scotland, 1830-1930. Review of: A Unique and Glorious Mission: Women and Presbyterianism in Scotland 1830-1930, Lesley A. Orr Macdonald, (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2000), 381pp. ISBN 978-0859764780. Victorian Studies, 45 (4), pp. 749-751. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3829546


Book Review

Macleod E (2003) The Anti-Jacobin novel: British conservatism and the French Revolution. Review of: The Anti-Jacobin Novel: British Conservatism and the French Revolution. By M. O. Grenby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001. xiii + 271pp ISBN 9780521021265. History, 88 (289), pp. 147-148. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.00253_4


Book Review

Macleod E (2002) Scotland in the eighteenth century: Union and Enlightenment. Review of: Scotland in the Eighteenth Century: Union and Enlightenment. By David Allan. Harlow: Longman. 2002. viii + 220pp ISBN 9780582382473. History, 87 (288), pp. 613-614. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.t01-1-00244


Book Chapter

Macleod E (2002) The Crisis of the French Revolution. In: Dickinson H T (ed.) A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain. Blackwell Companions to British History. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 112-124. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0631218378.html


Book Review

Macleod E (2002) The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, vol 2, 1540-1840. Review of: Peter Clark (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, vol 2, 1540-1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 934pp, ISBN 9780521431415.. Scottish Historical Review, 81 (211), pp. 131-134. https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2002.81.1.131


Book Review

Macleod E (2002) Revolutionary Britannia? Reflections on the threat of Revolution in Britain, 1789-1848. Review of: Revolutionary Brittania? Reflections on the Threat of Revolution in Britain, 1789-1848, by Edward Royle, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000, 214pp. ISBN 9780719048036. English Historical Review, 117 (470), pp. 205-206. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/117.470.205


Book Review

Macleod E (2002) The Younger Pitt. Review of: Michael Duffy, The Younger Pitt (Harlow: Longman, 2000), xiv + 247pp, ISBN 9780582052789. History, 87 (285), pp. 152-153. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.00217


Book Review

Macleod E (2001) Secret service: British agents in France 1792-1815. Review of: Secret Service: British Agents in France 1792-1815. by Elizabeth Sparrow. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer. 1999. Pp. xvi, 459. ISBN 0-85115-764-5. Albion, 33 (1), pp. 129-130. https://doi.org/10.2307/4053083


Book Review

Macleod E (2000) Women in Scotland, c.1100-c.1750. Review of: Elizabeth Ewan and Maureen M. Meikle, Women in Scotland, c.1100-1750 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press), 1999, pp. xxx+272. ISBN 9781862320468. English Historical Review, 115 (464), pp. 1282-1283. https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/115.464.1282


Book Review

Macleod E (2000) William Pulteney, A 'Proper Reply to a Late Scurrilous Libel, Intitled, Sedition and Defamation Display'd' (1731). Review of: W. Pulteney, A Proper Reply to a Late Scurrilous Libel; Entitled, Sedition and Defamation Display'd (1731), ed. H.T. Dickinson (New York: AMS Press, 1998), 30pp. ISBN 978-1171389002. History, 85 (278), pp. 353-353. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.00150


Book Review

Macleod E (2000) Protestantism and national identity: Britain and Ireland, c1650-1860. Review of:
Edited by Tony Claydon and Ian McBride. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, Pp. xi, 317. ISBN 0 521 62077 5. Scottish Historical Review, 79 (207), pp. 125-127. https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2000.79.1.125


Book Review

Macleod E (2000) Edmund Burke, vol 1, 1730-1784. Review of: Edmund Burke: Volume I, 1730–1784. By F. P. Lock. London: Clarendon Press. 1998. xv + 564pp. ISBN 978-0-19-922663-4. History, 85 (277), pp. 163-163. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.00141


Book Review

Macleod E (2000) The British monarchy and the French Revolution. Review of: The British Monarchy and the French Revolution. By Marilyn Morris. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1998. viii + 229pp. ISBN 978-0300206456. History, 85 (277), pp. 170-171. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.00142


Book Review

Macleod E (1999) William Pitt and the French Revolution, 1785-1795. Review of: William Pitt and the French Revolution, 1785-1795. By Jennifer Mori. Edinburgh: Keele University Press. 1997. xii ‡ 305pp. ISBN 978-1853311376. History, 84 (274), pp. 371-371. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.00112


Book Review

Macleod E (1998) Regency England: The age of Lord Liverpool. Review of: Regency England: The Age of Lord Liverpool. By John Plowright. London: Routledge. 1996. xv ‡ 70pp. ISBN 978-0415121408. History, 83 (272), pp. 737-738. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.00094


Book Review

Macleod E (1998) British women's history: A bibliographical guide. Review of: British Women's History: a bibliographical guide, ed by J. Hannam, A. Hughes and P. Stafford, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996, 150pp. ISBN 978-0719046520. History, 83 (269), pp. 110-110.


Book Review

Macleod E (1998) The politics of English Jacobinism: Writings of John Thelwall. Review of: The Politics of English Jacobinism: Writings of John Thelwall, G. Claeys (ed.),(University Park, PA: Penn State Press., 1995). lxii ‡ 532pp. ISBN 978-0271025919. History, 83 (269), pp. 182-183. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.00067


Book Review

Macleod E (1998) The Younger Pitt, vol 3, The consuming struggle. Review of: The Younger Pitt, Volume III: The Consuming Struggle. By John Ehrman. London: Constable. 1996. xv‡854pp. ISBN 978-0804727549. History, 83 (269), pp. 176-178. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.t01-1-00066


Teaching

I teach British political history in the eighteenth century and gender history on the BA History honours and combined honours programmes. I contribute to first- and second-year core modules on the Making of Modern Britain, Concepts in History, and Reputations in History. At honours level I teach Gender in Britain, 1750-1930; Protests, Riots and Propaganda: Popular politics in eighteenth-century Britain; and my special subject is Britain in the Age of the American and French Revolutions, 1760-1815. I also supervise MRes in Historical Research projects and PhDs.