T. M. Devine

I cannot argue that this book fails in research. It is a wonderful look into the history of nearly every event that changed the direction of the Scots in one way or another. I think that many readers who are looking for historical facts will find them here, if you do some looking through the bouncing around of time. More a textbook of the history than an intriguing compilation of facts, anyone expecting a little colorful storytelling with their history should look elsewhere.

Personally, I show more didn't exactly get what I was expecting and perhaps that is why I found it hard to keep my mind focused on what I was reading. I felt that what I was trying to get out of the book didn't quite seep into my mind the way other books on history have done. This is truly the history of Scotland overall, not only how the recruitment into the British Army and how others participated in slave trade changed how things worked out in America. Australia was included, as well as other parts of the world and I found myself interested in every new section. I really do wish I had been able to remain focused on it in order to retain more.

A wonderful history, well researched, but you really need to be in the mind for the strict factual alignment of the book. Don't pick it up because you want a story of what was, pick it up because you want the exact facts of what happened. show less

Primarily an economic history, with politics also given its due importance, but with social history only playing a poor second (or even third) fiddle and cultural history given merely perfunctory attention. Which on a certain level makes sense, economics influencing the others more than being influenced by them, but it makes for a rather dry reading.

Shows that the defeat of the Highlanders in 1715 and '45 was the condition of the creation of 'Highlandism' as the Scottish ethos, as they were recruited wholesale into the British Army, to earn their stripes in wars against France and America. Good, too, on Eric Williams' thesis of imperial plunder as original accumulation, especially in Glasgow, with useful references on the refutation of Williams' thesis.

A wonderful history of Gaelic Scotland from 1700.