Looking for a book on Scottish history

[ThistleDown]

From ThistleDown's suggestions:
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pickle the Spy, by Andrew Lang(EBook #6807).

There are a whole bunch of Andrew Lang's books over at Project Gutenberg.

Prolific, wasn't he? Others bred children, he bred books.

[Mark E.]

Lots of people enjoy John Prebble's, Culloden. It is well-written, and well-researched. He recognizes the sad plight of the Highlanders at and after Culloden, the winds of change that had already started, and does not advocate the Jacobite cause in any way. As a socialist, his sympathy with the people's cause may have won him some enemies, I'm not sure, but some historians seem to have taken issue with his work.

Another popular historian (thanks to ThistleDown for this lead) is Nigel Tranter who fictionalizes history. He also wrote a more serious history The Story of Scotland, which I have, but haven't yet read past the first two chapters. I've liked it so far.

I'll second these as well. On a note with regard to the responses predating this one...When a lot of us go searching for books and literature detailing the history of our countries, cultures, or even selves, we sometimes must ask the questions-are we to look for what we want to find? Or are we in search of the truth of things? For example...the battle of Culloden was not necessarily a conflict that was Scot against English, but rather one of Catholic against Protestant-and, unfortunately, quite a number of those Protestants were Scots. As a modern day American, it is (somewhat) humorous to find the portrayal of the American Civil War being implanted into the minds of the current younger generations as one of good versus evil on the basis of slavery versus freedom-though not that long ago it could have been considered one of capitalism and progress.

So...as far as fact, fiction, and entertainment go...Good luck with the suggestions. If you find the truth of the history you are searching for gives you cause to celebrate, celebrate. If not...What will you do with that knowledge?

Not that it deals with Scotland, but there is a book, Sarum, by Edward Rutherford-covers 10,000 years of English history. Very well written, and unbiassed.

[macwilkin]

For example...the battle of Culloden was not necessarily a conflict that was Scot against English, but rather one of Catholic against Protestant-and, unfortunately, quite a number of those Protestants were Scots.

Even that is a bit of an oversimplification, as a number of Episcopalians were Jacobite supporters, especially in the Highlands and in the Northeast. There are even accounts of a few Presbyterian Jacobites, but nothing compared to those in the ranks of the Government forces. It was three non-jurouring Episcopal Bishops (Petrie, Skinner and Kilgour) of the SEC that consecrated the first American Episcopal Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury (a former Loyalist) in Aberdeen after the American Revolution. The Scottish Episcopal Church, unlike the Church of England, did not require an oath of loyalty to the Crown, which kept English bishops from consecrating Seabury.

DISCLAIMER: The above post is for informational purposes only.

T.

[BobsYourUncle]

I heartily endorse all of the recommendations made so far. Among the recommendations are some very good general surveys. For anyone who wishes to delve in more depth, I have a few ideas.

One of the better histories is actually a four book set, the series title is The Edinburgh History of Scotland, which is comprised of [not necessarily in any order]: (1) W. Ferguson, Scotland: 1689 to the Present, (2) E. Donaldson, Scotland James V-James VII; (3) R. Nicholson, Scotland: the Later Middle Ages; (4) A.A.M. Duncan, Scotland: the Making of the Kingdom.

Another idea is a book called Scotland: The Autobiography, which makes principal use of original document extracts and contemprorary writings to bring you through Scotland's history. It is a modestly sized volume, and a fun way to hear about Scotland's history from contemporary sources without the filter of some historiographer.

For those intereset in social history, the field is a little more fraught. There has been a decades long debate between economic and social historians of Scotland over economic and social developments, especially in discussing the Highland Clearances. I have just begun reading J. Hunter's The Making of the Crofting Community, which was first published in the mid-70's, and has been quite controversial in painting a very critical picture of landlords and their factors actions in the Highland Clearances. Hunter criticizes much of the economic and social history that has been written as failing to accurately account for the experience, perspective and plight of the individuals and communities dislocated by the clearances.

The opposing camp, which seems to hold that such history over sentimentalizes a nasty, brutish and obsolete lifestyle which soon would have been destroyed by global economic developments anyway, is perhaps epitomized in T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830 [1969]

In the introduction to the 2000 edition of The Making of the Crofting Community, Hunter states that his book was greatly influenced by, and in some respects patterned on, E.P. Thomson's The Making of the English Working Class[Hunter's title being a direct adaptation of Thomson's], wherein the idea is to discuss history from the bottom up, instead of the top down.

Hunter is very critical of Smout and his ilk, concluding that they are too dismissive of the human and cultural cost of the Highland Clearances, and that it is appropriate for historians to include their moral conclusions in their work. Hunter argues against what he perceives to be Smout et. al.'s "landlord centric" approach, and in which Hunter claims they discredit history of the clearances taking the perspective of individuals and destroyed culture as the product of "popularizers" [like Hunter himself, and John Prebble] who have failed to adequately account for the economic and social data contained in available sources. Smout et. al. remind me of some historiographers in the Annale school, who seek to elevate demographic data over the anecdotal. Of course, the greater truth probably lies in some balance between the various approaches.

I'm not sure that I am going to devote extensive time to plumbing the depths of the controversy, my real interest is in an attempt to gain some insight into what life was actually like before and after the Highland Clearances. It appears that there may be considerable work in filtering out the historiographical controversy, and the attendant philosophical and political disputes. We''ll see how much patience I have for that.

Great thread, great ideas! Happy reading!

[ThistleDown]

You might want to consider "From Chiefs to Landlords" by Robt. Dodgshon as an accompaniment to "The Making of the Crofting Community". It's a difficult read but essential to an understanding of the transition of land tenure in the Highlands.

Rex