Investigating the impact of the Scottish Enlightenment on the establishment of the United States
Eric Ryu Explores Scotland's Impact on American Founders
Eric Ryu, a fourth-year student, is delving into the influence of Scotland on education during the American revolutionary era for his history honors thesis. His research, supported by the Gelfman International Summer Fund, Wolf Humanities Center, and Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy, is shedding new light on the subject.
Ryu's research focus shifted to the influence of Scotland on the American founders while working on the life and intellectual history of Supreme Court Justice James Wilson. He spent part of his summer working in the archives of the University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh, and University of St Andrews, delving into student notes of faculty lectures and library lending lists from the 1750s to the 1820s.
Ryu aims to decenter the conversation about the Scottish Enlightenment to reflect the lived experiences of the students during that period. He believes that prior scholarship has focused excessively on correspondence between influential elites in Scotland, such as David Hume, Adam Smith, Benjamin Rush, and Benjamin Franklin. Ryu argues that the American founders were not in a silo, but were in dialogue with people all over the world, including Scotland.
Sarah L. H. Gronningsater, an associate professor in the School of Arts & Science's Department of History, is Ryu's Gelfman advisor and previously worked with him as a research assistant. Gronningsater notes that Ryu has become an independent researcher in his own right, moving up the ladder from being a research assistant.
Ryu's investigations reveal that the Scottish Enlightenment was not as unique and distinctively Scottish as contemporary scholars suggest. He believes that it was part of a wider intellectual exchange, influencing American revolutionary thought through philosophical and economic ideas during the 18th century. While specific names with direct contact are less documented in the search results, Scottish professors such as Francis Hutcheson and Adam Smith had significant contact with the American Founding Fathers and were instrumental in the exchange of ideas between Scotland and America.
In his research, Ryu is investigating the Scottish Enlightenment and its impact on three Scottish universities that had an influence on early America. His findings could redefine our understanding of the Scottish Enlightenment and its role in shaping the intellectual landscape of the American revolutionary era.
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