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Title: How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It by Arthur Herman ISBN: 0-609-80999-7 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 24 September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (42 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Och! he's a wee bit of a blether
Comment: Some of his more dour Scottish readers may very well tell Arthur Herman that he's mixing in a little bit of nonsense here. HOW THE SCOTS INVENTED THE MODERN WORLD is a glowing tribute to the Scots but he does go over the top a bit in giving them credit for more than they actually achieved, and also more than the Scot's ever claimed for themselves.
This book however is a serious study of Scotland in the 18th century, particularly the period following the Act of Union with England in 1707 known as the Scottish Enlightenment. THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT is actually the book's UK title but that doesn't mean too much to us here. Far more eye-catching and interesting sounding is the title used for the US edition. This however creates a problem for the author. Its pop-culture sounding theme gives the impression that we will be engaged in competitive national chest-beating such as HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION and comparing lists of who accomplished what as in SPREZZATURA: 50 WAYS ITALIAN GENIUS SHAPED THE WORLD. Here the Scots supposedly not only CREATED OUR WORLD [but also] EVERYTHING IN IT!. Such claims don't allow the book to be taken very seriously but that is exactly how Herman wants it to be read. It's therefore a credit to him that his presentation of the facts and his arguments are good enough to allow him to make his point.
If we were to compile lists, one that would show Scottish prowess would be that of great thinkers of the 18th century. Start with Adam Smith, David Hume, Walter Scott, James Watt and Lord Kelvin. There is also John Stuart Mill. Those who were less thinkers and inventors but doers were David Livingstone and Scottish-Americans such as John Muir and Andrew Carnegie. It is the presence of transplanted Scots like Carnegie which underlies one of the authors main points. They are the "true inventors" of "modernity" because they carried their beliefs with them as they settled around the world. Thus the roots of the Western traditions of individualism, democracy, and capitalism can all be traced back to Scotland.
It's an interesting argument carried off with much bravado and assured writing on the part of the author. To the extent that he stays away from the stereotypes such as the thrifty, penny-pinching Scot we can be thankful. This is a guid book and as a bairn of the Campbell's of Argyll on my mother's side I am pleased that this book has helped me ken a lot more about Scotland.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Scots Enlightened the world
Comment: The book might be better titled 'The Scottish Enlightenment and its influences on the modern world.' It is divided into two sections, 'Epiphany' and 'Diaspora'. Few will need an introduction to notions of a Scottish diaspora, but 'epiphany' is an interesting twist on 'Enlightenment'. The conventional academic gloss on the Enlightenment focuses on French appeals to 'reason' culminating in Kant's categorical truths. The followers of Edmund Burke generally dismiss the 'French Enlightenment' as a corruption of the British Enlightenment which focused on 'compassion' rather than 'reason'.
Herman takes both to task for forgetting the evangelical sources of our modern world. Herman starts his story with crusty John Knox and his blend of revolutionary violence, predestination and universal literacy. Knox's reliance on the whirling dervish of 'revival meetings' and individual study of biblical sources provides Herman with all he needs to found the enlightened modern world in foggy Scotland. He is not shy about introducing Christian roots to what became an atheist philosophy. The transition from spiritual epiphany to materialist enlightenment might have been an interesting thread, but Herman avoids the issue. It is enough to boost the Scottish role and leave it at that.
Personally, I found this all a bit more intriguing than convincing. The leap from Knox (1505 - 1572) to Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746) required a detour from church history into British nationalism before emerging with a secular history of the Enlightenment. While I enjoyed getting a Scottish view of the 'English' civil war and detailed account of parliamentary debate over the Treaty of Union (1707), I was left wondering if the emphasis on Knox was merely Scottish boosterism, i.e. the Scots invented everything, so we need a 16th century Scot founder. . The genesis story is to short. All this takes place in the first 60 pages, one third of it devoted entirely to the Treaty of Union. To make a case for Hutcheson and Lord Kames inventing the 'Enlightenment', a bit more would be required regarding English and French developments.
Don't get me wrong, I really didn't mind the boosterism. The story moves pretty quickly. Just read it with a skeptical eye, as any Scot would advise you.
Others might say that the book is a much needed hurrah for the Lowland Scots. Given the 19th century's romantic obsession with the Highland clans, the Lowland Scots get ignored or labeled traitors. Herman enjoys debunking these delusions. The Highlanders are simply barbarian holdouts from the feudal age, the truly unenlightened. He gleefully recounts the adulteration of highland kilt into royal mini-skirt, and describes the rising of 1745 as little more than suicidal lunacy. Most tellingly, the highland clans are Lord Kames' model for 'primative man' and thus the model for later notions of 'hunter-gatherer' societies. The lowland Scots provide the heroic model of social elevation from 'hunter-gather' to 'farmer' to 'merchant' to 'enlightened'.
I enjoyed the way Herman connects Knox to Hutcheson, then Hutcheson to Hume, Witherspoon and the American revolution. It is a good story and fine corrective to the conventional emphasis on continental philosophy. The story of Sir Walter Scott would have made a good ending, but Herman presses on with an unnecessary history (but mercifully short) of steam engines, public health and any Scot that made a bundle of cash.
Rating: 3
Summary: Scotland Forever in a Splendid Read for Everyhone:
Comment: I am a Presbyterian pastor who received this excellent short
history of Scotland as a Christmas gift from a parishoner. It is a wonderfully well written, anecdotal and colorful survey of those doughy "North Britons" known as the Scotch.
What an amazing cast of characters strust with gusto across the Scottish stage. Philosphers such as David Hume; educators and ministers such as John Witherspoon (the only clergyperson to sign our Declaration of Independence), Bonnie Prince Charlie,
the greatest Scottish authors Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns
as well as James Boswell the chronicler of Dr. Johnson to famous architects and scientists.
Herman writes in a popular style meaning he is easily understood and clear in his writing. One important memory I will take from this book is how influential the Scotch were in American history. Scotch enlightenment philosophy inspired our own Constitution and influenced such thinkers as Madison and
Jefferson,
Scotland is a small country but mighty in world history. It was the most literate and innovation society in Europe during the eighteen-nineteenth century and continues to add to the liberal progressivism necessary if a democratic society is to flourish.
This would be an excellent resource for folks planning a visit to Scotland or anyone who wants to benefit from Professor Herman's insight, wisdom, humanity and scholarship.
Highly well done and assuredly well recommended by this
reviewer! Get out the kilts and put haggis on your menu!
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Title: The Mark of the Scots: Their Astonishing Contributions to History, Science, Democracy, Literature, and the Arts by Duncan A. Bruce ISBN: 0806520604 Publisher: Citadel Trade Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: America's Founding Secret: What the Scottish Enlightenment Taught Our Founding Fathers by Robert W. Galvin ISBN: 0742522806 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing (via NBN) Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: A History of Scotland by Bruce Lenman, Geoffrey Parker, John Duncan MacKie ISBN: 0140136495 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: August, 1984 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Scotland: A Concise History, Revised Edition by Fitzroy Maclean, Magnus Linklater ISBN: 0500282331 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Scottish 100: Portraits of History's Most Influential Scots by Duncan A. Bruce ISBN: 0786709693 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: 09 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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