Patrick Geddes’s Intellectual Origins

Superb new study of Geddes. Very well researched, drawing on new material as well as earlier work. Detailed notes will be extremely useful to other researchers. And written in a clear accessible style - unlike some academic books. Strongly recommended whatever aspect of Geddes's work is of most interest - biology, ecology, town planning, environmental improvement, cultural renewal, university education. * Amazon.co.uk *
A brilliant introduction to Geddes and his world. -- James Robertson * Best Scottish Books 2020 *
...stresses Geddes’s internationalism; with other early 20th-century thinkers he shared an intellectual project of cultural nationalism as a basis for cooperation. -- Clarisse Godard Desmarest * Cercles: Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone *
This definitive account illuminates Geddes the man, the thinker and the activist. Murdo Macdonald deals with the remarkable range of Geddes’s ideas – in science, ecology, culture, history, town planning, and education. Professor Macdonald’s own breadth and depth of scholarship is admirably matched to the richness of his subject. * Lindsay Paterson, University of Edinburgh *
The book is well-written and scholarly, without being abstractly theoretical. The influence of Geddes radiated in multiple disciplinary directions, and he motivated his co-workers and students alike to push back the boundaries of contemporary thinking in ways that we are still discovering […] I thought that I knew about the life of Patrick Geddes, but I discovered in this book some lovely anecdotes that illustrate his personality quirks and his almost casual genius. I have only ever found a few biographies that actually leave the reader with a wish to befriend the subject, but this book is different. This book should be read as much for its insights into turn-of-the-century Scottish society as for the biography, and I am left wishing that I had been acquainted with Patrick Geddes. -- Frank Rennie * Scottish Geographical Journal *
Patrick Geddes, nearly 90 years after his death, does indeed speak to us now with urgency and, as importantly, with hope... Macdonald's study could hardly be improved on as a starting-point for further exploration of Geddes's multi-channelled mind. It draws together a mass of interconnected information about him and his associates, creating a fascinating and in places rather beautiful web. -- James Robertson * Scottish Review *
Superb and scholarly. -- R. J. Morris * The Drouth *
The fine new book, Patrick Geddes’s Intellectual Origins… stresses Geddes’s interdisciplinary approach to knowledge. -- Ramachandra Guha * The Telegraph (Kolkata) *