Scotland: A History
by Jenny Wormald (Editor) - Hardback £17.21 / $35
Scottish history has long been dominated by the romantic tales of Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots, and Bonnie Prince Charlie. But the explosion of serious historical research in the last half-century has fueled a keen desire for a better-informed and more satisfying understanding of the Scottish past.
This attractively designed book--boasting scores of illustrations, include eight color plates--brings together the leading authorities on Scottish history, who range from Roman times until the present day, offering a more accurate and sophisticated portrait of Scotland through the ages. The contributors take us from medieval Scotland, to the crisis created by Mary Queen of Scots and the trauma of Reformation, to the reign of James VI and the Union of the Crowns (1603). They discuss the seventeenth century, when a stern Calvinist Kirk launched an unprecedented attack on music, dancing, drama, and drinking, and the remarkable transformation of enlightenment Scotland, when the small nation became a great force in European literature, with such eminent figures as David Hume, Adam Smith, Robert Burns, and James Boswell. We discover that in the nineteenth century the Scottish economy, by some criteria, outpaced the rest of Britain, and its preeminence in heavy engineering was unquestioned. And we follow Scotland through the turbulent twentieth century, enduring two world wars and a depression, before ending on a high note, with Scotland enjoying its first parliament in three hundred years.
What emerges here is a portrait of a confident people who slowly built an important place for themselves in the wider world--the story of a remarkably positive, assured, and successful kingdom.
About the Author
Jenny Wormald is currently Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She has previously been Lecturer in Scottish History at the University of Glasgow, British Academy Reader in the Humanities, and a Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
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Product Details
ISBN: 9780198206156
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 15 August 2005
Format: Hardback
Language: English
Pages: 380 p.
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review 
The history of Scoland for people who already know the history of Scotland, May 6, 2007 by M. Cooper
If you are looking for your first book on the history of Scotland, this is not it.
This is a very, very detailed review of Scottish history which presumes you already have a detailed knowledge of the subject. If you are looking for an introduction to the history of Scotland, this is not your book. This book does not give you an overview or context for the history, but gives lots of detail for those who are already knowledgeable about the history of Scotland. The book is not an easy read. Some of the passages in this book are almost impenetrable; with paragraphs that run two, three or even four pages long.
This book does not really give much information on Scotland before 1100. If you are interested in the geologic or pre-historic history of Scotland, this book will not give you that information.
If you are looking for detailed information on Scotland and the succession of Scottish kings after 1100, this book contains vast amounts of detailed information.
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Scotland: wee giant of the British Isles, May 18, 2006
By T. Patrick Killough (Black Mountain, NC United States)
What is an American reader who is neither a Scot nor a scholar of Scotland likely to know about that country? That there are highlanders who wear kilts and eat haggis. That Shakespeare's Macbeth was once Scotlands's king. That Robert the Bruce learned patience watching a spider weave its web. That John Knox brought a dour Calvinism to the Kingdom, at the same time putting the skids under Mary Queen of Scots. That Walter Scott and George Gordon Lord Byron (who had a titled Scottish mother) wove long narrative poems and Scott also wrote IVANHOE and other novels about the past of England and Scotland. Maybe an American reader has also seen movies such as KIDNAPPED, ROB ROY, BRAVEHEART and the TV series THE HIGHLANDER.
That seems very little to know about a country but is enough to assure that a reader will both enjoy and benefit from SCOTLAND: A HISTORY. MacBeth is in its pages as well as the murdered Duncan and his sons and the beginning of the three-century plus Stewart/Stuart dynasty. King Robert the Bruce and the initially obscure William Wallace contend for the mythic soul of Scots both high and low. John Calvin's Kirk definitively colors Scotland's religion and politics for over 400 years. Professor Richard B. Sher of Rutgers University concludes his dazzling Chapter 6, "Scotland Transformed: The Eighteenth Century," this way: "By the end of the eighteenth century, Burns was dead and Ferguson, Mackenzie, and Blair in retirement, but the age of Walter Scott was about to begin" (p. 208). ***
Throughout, the eleven authors narrate with color and precision. That John Knox wrote in the vernacular is no surprise. Much earlier in the same 16th century Gavin Douglas in his ENEADOS had translated Vergil's AENEID into Scots, even before anyone did it in southern English (p. 319). It is striking that in their "diaspora" (Chapter 9) Scots appeared in some numbers in Prussia, Poland, Russia Sweden and South Africa. Scots also left their mark as military and civil officers in British India.
There is a consensus among the editor and authors that for too long Scottish history was almost a monopoly of Presbyterian writers. Their slants were important but tended to obscure the case for other persuasions and values, such as the more fun-loving English and their taste for "cakes and ale." Scots are also great story tellers and chroniclers and it is important that 21st century scholars have revisited critically and displayed anew the old sources. This they do convincingly in SCOTLAND: A HISTORY.
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Through 80 pages ..., March 4, 2006
By Adam Bigham (Michigan, USA)
Having been published very recently, this book with many contributors synthesizes the latest scholarship. I have just finished the second chapter, AD 1100-1300. This period of Scotland becoming a nation seems to pivot on the reign of David I (1124-53), although later monarchs' of Scots achievements are detailed too, such as the bringing of the Western Isles into the realm. It is worthwhile reading, but occasionally the author's grammar or an obscure reference is confusing.
I was most interested in the first chapter, written by University of Glasgow's Katherine Forsyth. "Origins: Scotland to 1100" is the period I have been reading about the most over several years. Obviously 39 pages cannot contain exceptional detail (compared to an entire book on the subject, such as Smyth's 'Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD 80-1000', which, by the way, also gives great insight into the eleventh century, besides the whole first millenium,) but I found it to be a suitable introduction to this period for such as a single-volume of Scottish history might offer. The author's speciality in epigraphy allows for some intriguing insights, while not hindering a thorough overall impression of the period.
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