How important is the Declaration of Arbroath..

[macwilkin]

It's worse than that and you chaps may find it hard to understand. Much of Scottish history has been so romanticised by the likes of Sir Walter Scott, Landseer, Mel Gibson etc., willingly aided and abetted by assorted propaganda campaigns, by Kings, politicians and with the willing participation of the tourist industry of the last 150 years with their biscuit box version of Scots history. The nett result of all that, is that there is now a legacy of almost total cynicism to almost all of Scottish history by the Scots.I have noticed this effect for many years now and I am quite convinced that this is one of the reasons that the kilt is not seen as regular everyday wear in Scotland.

Jock,

Really though, you could easily take out the references to Scotland in your post, plug in USA, and that would be my observations from working for over a decade in public and academic history. I worked as a park ranger at a Civil War Battlefield, and we dealt with the mythology of that conflict, much of it historically inaccurate, on a daily basis.

Of course, that doesn't deter me from attempting to get it right and tell the story -- my mentor, the State Historian of Arizona, once had a student write on his evaluation, "Missing Mr. Trimble's class is like missing something I bought tickets for!" -- that is something I strive for everytime I take the podium and stand in front of a class.

If anything, your post above motivates me to make history a "well-told story" and hopefully get one student interested in its study -- if I've done that, then I've done my job.

T.

[Jock Scot]

Jock,

Really though, you could easily take out the references to Scotland in your post, plug in USA, and that would be my observations from working for over a decade in public and academic history. I worked as a park ranger at a Civil War Battlefield, and we dealt with the mythology of that conflict, much of it historically inaccurate, on a daily basis.

Of course, that doesn't deter me from attempting to get it right and tell the story -- my mentor, the State Historian of Arizona, once had a student write on his evaluation, "Missing Mr. Trimble's class is like missing something I bought tickets for!" -- that is something I strive for everytime I take the podium and stand in front of a class.

If anything, your post above motivates me to make history a "well-told story" and hopefully get one student interested in its study -- if I've done that, then I've done my job.



T.

I don't doubt what you say one bit and I think modern Scotland and its cynical attitude to its past is a salutary lesson to all "commercial" historians. Alright Scotland is a small country compared to the USA, but there is no doubt that as a country we are in desperate need to get our heads out of these mystical clouds.I will give you but one example, until fairly recently(in historical terms) lowland Scots poured ridicule on the kilt and now they wander about talking as though they invented it! Many lowlanders, if you tried to explain the historical facts, simply would not believe you.

Now, there is no doubt that the tourist industry has and still does raise a huge and much needed income for Scotland and the UK in general. However I do believe that the local Scots are now reacting to romantic historical and tartan overload.

Go to it Todd!