A comprehensive examination of the past, present and future prospects of the Anglo-Scottish Union, this book is written by the cream of the academic talent in modern Scottish history and Scottish ...politics. It appeals to a wide readership while conforming to the highest standards of scholarship and no other volume considers the entire 300-year experience of Union - from its origins in the early 18th century to the historic parliamentary victory of the SNP in May 2007.All the key themes and questions are covered here: " why the Union took place" its growing acceptance in the eighteenth century" the central role of the Scots in the British Empire and the impact on Scotland" the politics of unionism" the challenge of nationalism" Thatcherism and the Union" Devolution and prospects for the future.Contributions come from Christopher A. Whatley, Allan I. Macinnes, Karen Bowie, Alexander J. Murdoch, Ewen A. Cameron, William L. Miller, Richard Findlay, Brian Ashcroft, Charlie Jeffrey, John Curtice and Neal Ascherson.This is the essential text for understanding one of the most burning issues in British public life today.
Scotland’s culture is vigorous and vibrant, energised by questions of history and identity, by interpretations of the past and by the possibilities for the future. At this key moment, earlier ...identities are being re-examined and re-presented, and personal and cultural histories are being redefined and reconsidered in contemporary life and literature. It is these themes of re-examination, re-presentation, redefinition and reconsideration that the eleven essays in this volume explore. Together, they show how the multifarious roots embedded in contemporary Scottish life and letters bear fruit – often in surprising ways – and how the re-creation and reimagination of Scottish culture, its identities and its tropes, are being developed by a range of leading Scottish writers.
This volume concentrates on the period from the beginning of the 18th century to the latter part of the 20th. It is impossible to depict a single school of philosophical theology in Scotland across ...three centuries, yet several strains have been identified that suggest some recurrent themes or intellectual habits. These include the following: the mutually beneficial cross-fertilisation of the disciplines of philosophy and theology; the tendency to eschew powerful philosophical systems that might threaten to imprison theological ideas; a stress on both the providential limitations and reliability of human reason; a suspicion of reductive theories of a materialist inclination; and a determination to inspect critically the proposals of theology and to place these in positive relation to other disciplines.
Notional Identities takes up the challenge of engaging with the popular genres of speculative fiction and crime fiction by Scottish authors from the mid-1970s until the beginning of the twenty-first ...century, examining a variety of significant novels from across the decades in the light of wider considerations of ideology, genre and national identity. The book investigates the extent to which the national political and cultural climate of this tumultuous era informed the narrative form and soc.
John Stuart Blackie was one of the most impressive and influential figures of nineteenth-century Scotland, as well as one of the most striking and flamboyant. As an intellectual he translated ...Goethe's Faust and brought first-hand knowledge of German philosophy to Scotland as a means of keeping the Enlightenment tradition alive. As first Professor of Humanity at Aberdeen from 1839 to 1852 and then as Professor of Greek at Edinburgh until 1882, he played a, perhaps the, central role in modernising the Scottish university curriculum, removing the dead hand of theological orthodoxy, raising standards (and the entry age), introducing tutorial teaching and establishing new chairs (including the Edinburgh chair of Celtic). His role in the reform of secondary school teaching was equally central.
Africa in Scotland, Scotland in Africa provides scholarly, interdisciplinary exploration; and fills a significant gap in interpretation and critical analysis of the complex historical and ...contemporary relationships, links and networks between Scotland, Africa and the African diaspora.
This is the first modern, book-length study of the case of Thomas Aikenhead, the sometime University of Edinburgh student who in 1697 earned the unfortunate distinction of being the last person ...executed for blasphemy in Britain." "Taking a micro-historical approach, Michael F. Graham uses the Aikenhead case to open a window into the world of late-seventeenth-century Edinburgh and Scotland. This book brings together many of the critical themes in Scottish and British history in a period of transition from the confessional era of the Reformation - which emphasised the defence of orthodox belief to the more open civil society and polite, literary world of the Enlightenment, of which Edinburgh would become a major centre."
Independence has been a contested issue in Scotland since the region was first invaded by England in 1707, and the realm continues to linger between regional status and full sovereignty. The issue of ...independence has risen to the forefront of Scottish discussion in the past fifty years, and Murray Pittock offers here an examination of modern Scottish nationalism and what it means for the United Kingdom. Pittock charts Scotland's economic, cultural, and social histories, focusing on the history and cultural impact of Scottish cities and industries, the role of multiculturalism in contemporary Scottish society, and the upheaval of devolution, including the 2007 election of Scotland's first nationalist government. From the architecture and art of Edinburgh and Glasgow to the Scottish Parliament, the book investigates every aspect of modern Scottish society to explain the striking rise of Scottish nationalism since 1960. Now brought up to date and with a new foreword by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, The Road to Independence? reveals a new perspective on modern Scottish culture on the eve of Scotland's referendum on independence from the UK in September 2014. "Enormously informative and often thought-provoking. . . . This book could hardly be improved on: it's lively, lucid, witty, beautifully written."-Scotsman "A well-arranged exposition of the various pressures and stresses Scottish society has faced and faces still."-Diplomat
