History Books On Scotland?

[Phil]

One I particularly enjoyed was "The Scottish Enlightenment The Scots' Invention of the Modern World", Arthur Herman. It is particularly interesting and covers the Scots in America as well. ISBN 978-1-84115-276-9.

[Bugbear]

One I particularly enjoyed was "The Scottish Enlightenment The Scots' Invention of the Modern World", Arthur Herman. It is particularly interesting and covers the Scots in America as well. ISBN 978-1-84115-276-9.

I was about to post that I had also read that one, but this is the title of the book I read.
How the Scots Invented the Modern World: the true story of how western Europe's poorest nation created our world and everything in it, by Arthur Herman; New York: Crown Publishers/Random House, 2001.



Perhaps it has been published under a different name over here, or one is an earlier work. It sounds like they cover much of the same subject.

Anyway that's the one I read, and I enjoyed it, too.

*
Looks like that is the title of the British published book, but they are, as far as I can find out, the same book.

[Cavebear58]

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[Bugbear]

Well... I'm getting both books.
The Magnusson discussion will cause me to look through my collection of Icelandic sagas et al.

[Stratherrick]

The Magnusson book is a must read. Well written and researched.

Slainte

Bruce

[Bugbear]

Ok, I'm seven chapters in to, Scotland: The Story of a Nation, by Magnus Magnusson; New York: Grove Press, 2000.

This is a really good book for an overview. I realize that each of these chapters could be expanded into a whole book of it's own, but it is giving me a good idea of what's going on in each time period.

Magnusson puts some interesting side notes in on historical sites.

[Bugbear]

All Right, I'm a good way through Magnusson's book, Scotland: The Story of a Nation.

As I've been reading, I've been thinking of the best way to describe this book; it's very good. Basically, this is a condensed encyclopedia of Scottish history. It's laid out in chronological order, with each chapter giving an over view of a time period or era along with information on locations of sites in relation to modern areas etc.

Say you come across a MacMillan of Rathdown and Jock Scot discussion on the forum about "John Balliol"; it's very easy to look him up in the book and read an overview of his life, and the further chapters where he is brought up are mentioned. There is also a chronology, list of kings and queens, and an index of topics in the back of the book. It's about 730 pages, so not a pocket sized book.


I haven't read James Buchan's, "Crowded With Genius...," yet, but hopefully with all these history books, I will no longer be an ignoramus of Scottish history...

That's my review.