"How The Scots Made America" by Michael Fry

[Peter Crowe]

It seems that sorting fact from fiction is a constant battle for the studier of any history but Scotland's seems to have an abundance of mythology. I genuinely find that curious.

If others more qualified and knowledgeable would help me understand that I'd be grateful.

I think Bren, that the Romantic movement and Sir Walter Scott, the Sobeiski Stewarts and others made Scotland and Scottish Highlandism popular in the XIX century which is both a blessing and a curse upon Scotland's story. A blessing because it's colour and visual impressiveness has generated interest in all matters Scottish, and a curse because a lot of it was 'invented tradition' which became a prism that has informed (and distorted) the wider public consciousness of both general Scottish history and culture, but also the history of the Highlands and Islands. This has left the field open to myth-making and a degree of fantasy about Scotland's past. There is much in that past to take pride in but Scotland has had it's share of shameful episodes too.

That said, we are where we are, and it has had an effect on authentic Scottish culture. How this fits with the Kilt and THCD is there is a continual tension between traditional and historical. The latter can very easily descend into anachronism and the former if it becomes too rigid can become a caricature of a 1940's and 1950's view of Scottish culture and Highland attire.

As to Herman's book it is the grandiosity of the claims that bothers me. The Scottish Enlightenment was a remarkable period in the intellectual life of the nation and which both indigenous roots and a distinctive character of it's own but was also an intellectual movement which spoke to and was informed by the wider Enlightenment in Europe and even in North America with the likes of Ben Franklin.

[tulloch]

How the Scots Invented the Modern World is a great book. I am re-reading it right now. It can be gotten here in Massachusetts at B&N for under $8 hardbound! Well worth it.

I have gotten A Dance Called America and it looks good. Can't wait to get into it. Thanks for the referral.

[JCShutout]

A respectful word of caution... Mr. Fry, by his own proud pronouncement here in Scotland, writes from an extreme far right Conservative with a capital C perspective. For some balance, may I suggest the work of Skye man, Dr. Tom Hunter's body of work on the subject of Scotland and America. Specifically, A Dance Called America, among other very balanced and scrupulously researched scholarly works.

Thanks, just ordered the book.

[Steve Ashton]

I love this quote -

"I've often thought Scotland's popular history is just like her landscape - impossibly romantic, obscured by mist and myth and always changing. "

Neil Oliver author of "A History of Scotland"

[rebelrouser]

I would like to add: Born Fighting, How the Scot-Irish shaped America by James Webb. Boone, Crocket, Patton etc a fun read.

[JCShutout]

I would like to add: Born Fighting, How the Scot-Irish shaped America by James Webb. Boone, Crocket, Patton etc a fun read.

++ That's a good read.

[macwilkin]

Colin Calloway's White People, Highlanders and Indians is one of my favourite books. Celeste Ray's Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South and Fernec Szaz's Scots in the North American West, 1790-1917 are also great reads.

Incidentally, Professor Calloway is a native Scot and has very positive things to say about the diaspora, using the old saying, "This is my grandfather's ax. My father gave it a new handle, and I gave it a new blade."

T.