The Edinburgh Review, a quarterly magazine, was founded in October, 1802 by Francis Jeffrey, Sydney Smith and Henry Brougham. The owners of the journal favoured the Whigs in Parliament and most of the writers for the journal such as William Hazlitt and Thomas Babington Macaulay tended to favour political reform. Walter Scott, an early contributor, eventually refused to send in articles because he found the journal was in conflict with his Tory views.

The Edinburgh Review was the most influential magazine of its day and by 1818 circulation had reached 13,500. Francis Jeffrey, the editor between 1802 and 1829 was an outspoken critic of certain writers such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge. An article written by Henry Brougham that attacked the work of Lord Byron resulted in the writer replying with the poem English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.

Henry Reeve became editor of the Edinburgh Review in 1855, a post he was to hold for over forty years. The magazine ceased publication in 1929.