The Scottish History Society is excited to host historian Marc Mierowski who will speak about his new book A Spy Amongst Us: Daniel Defoe’s Secret Service and the Plot to End Scottish Independence (Yale University Press). Join us on 13 April 2026 for this online event, beginning 19:30 (UK). Please register here.
[Marc Mierowsky, A Spy Amongst Us: Daniel Defoe’s Secret Service and the Plot to End Scottish Independence (Yale University Press)]
In 1706, Edinburgh was on the brink of a popular uprising. Men and women took to the streets to protest the planned union with England, fearing the end of Scottish sovereignty. But unbeknownst to the mob, a spy was in their midst—the English writer Daniel Defoe, now bankrupt and thrice pilloried, had turned a government agent.
Marc Mierowsky tells the dramatic story of Defoe and his fellow spies as they sabotaged the Scottish independence movement from the inside. Together they disseminated propaganda and built a network of operatives from London to the upper Highlands, providing the English government with up-to-the-minute intelligence and monitoring its adversaries’ every move.
Through the lives of Defoe and his ring, their handlers, and opponents, Mierowsky guides us through this shadowy underworld of espionage and propaganda—revealing a disturbing and distinctly modern political campaign.
Marc Mierowsky is an ARC DECRA Fellow and Lecturer in English at the University of Melbourne, where he researches seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature and intellectual history. He is an associate editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Daniel Defoe and coeditor of Oxford World’s Classics edition of The Fortunate Mistress [Roxana].
Yale University Press have generously offered guests for this event a discount of 20% on purchases of the book. Attendees will receive this discount code on the evening. A link to the online host platform upon will be emailed upon registration for the event here.
For further information please contact Jade Scott secretary@scottishhistorysociety.com