I have been a self driven student of history all my life. I was the nine year old who led his parents and siblings on his own self guided tour of nearly every major Civil War battlefield east of the Mississippi in one summer, something my parents and siblings still speak of with awe to this day.

History is only interesting to those who have some interest in understanding its forces and in learning from its lessons. As a variant of what has been said earlier, history is written by the victors (in a military setting) but better said to be written by the SURVIVORS in all settings. All of life, from an evolutionary standpoint, is the drive and desire to survive and self-perpetuate AT ALL COSTS. And sometimes those costs are indeed brutal, cruel, and inhumane. And none of us likes to have to hear about and relive our own tribe's actions which might fall into this category of behavior. Modern Germans resent being forced to learn in primary school about the holocaust and their ancestors part in that horror wrought by men, white americans try to ignore the plight of inner city poor blacks as a longterm result of slavery and their own version of the Highland clearances involving the native americans and the american west. All families have their horse thief somewhere in their history, or as my grandfather used to say their "n****r in the woodpile" which causes some sense of shame and embarrassment.

When it comes to the Highland clearances I would have to lump myself into the crowd of folks relatively interested and somewhat knowledgeable of all things scottish and some scottish history, but must admit that I have learned more about the clearances in this thread than I ever knew before, or would likely have learned without the input of those of you who are more knowledgeable and willing to discuss it and share it here with the rest of us in open forum. And I have been now motivated to learn more on the subject and will likely read Prebbles book myself at next opportunity. But please don't belittle those of us who are less knowledgeable than you might be, don't pity our ignorance. Rather consider it an opportunity to spread your knowledge to those who may be more enthusiastic than you might ever imagine to learn about what you know about the subject and have to share to make us all better informed.

Knowledge is inherently good. Knowledge is power.

I will step down off my soapbox now to let someone else have an opportunity to rant.