The Scottish Nation: 1700-2000

Spanning the 300 years between the Act of Union and the re-establishment of the Scottish parliament, this history covers all the factors that go to make Scotland what it is today. Devine charts the uneasy relationship between Scotland and England, focusing closely on the growth of Scottish ideas of independence and self-rule and he uses extensive original research to examine Scotland's urban vigor as well as describing the traditional aspects of Scottish history, covering key topics such as the Union, the Enlightenment, Industrialization, the Clearances, Religion, and the Road to Devolution. He also explores the global Diaspora of the Scots, the impact of migrants, and the effect of the World Wars. Throughout, Scotland's story is set against the background of British, European, and world history.

Book Author

Tom-devine Professor Tom Devine is Head of the School of History,Classics and Archaeology, Director of the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies and the Sir William Fraser Chair of Scottish History and Palaeography at the University of Edinburgh, generally regarded as the world's premier Chair of Scottish History. Tom Devine was educated at Strathclyde University where he graduated with first class honours in History in 1968 followed by a Ph.D and D.Litt. He rose through the academic ranks from assistant lecturer to Reader, Professor, Head of Department, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences...
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Book Reviews

  • Arnold Kemp, Observer
    "A major new history"
  • Peter Clarke, Scotland on Sunday
    "Compelling"
  • Niall Ferguson, Sunday Times
    "Outstanding...Scottish history has been waiting a long time for a counterpart to Roy Foster's masterpiece of revisionist synthesis, Modern Ireland,...Devine has written it."
  • Michael Fry, Herald
    "Magnificent...a high achievement, a history of modern Scotland which rarely for the subject, endows with sweep and powrr the changes that have created the country we live in."
  • Donald Dewar
    "A formidable work - a serious attempt to describe within one set of covers the complex and troubled history of modern Scotland...the range of the book is quite remarkable."
  • Gordon Brown
    "Both the sweep of the issues and the depth of the analysis, particularly the impact of change on the lives of ordinary people, make it one of the books. It will certainly be one of my books of the year."
  • The Herald
    "One of the most significant Scottish books of the century. "
  • Scotland on Sunday
    "A fiercely intelligent account of Scotland…Devine is the country’s most prominent historian, and from the evidence of this book, rightly so."
  • Financial Times
    "The work of a compendious historical mind. In it, you can smell the stink of the nineteenth-century Glasgow slums…hear the disputations of the Enlightenment scholars…the first history of Scotland which both a nationalist and a unionist Scot can keep on their shelves with pride , and that is a large achievement in itself. "