The Oxford Companion to Scottish History has more than 170 expert contributors. It interprets history broadly, including archaeology, architecture, climate, culture, folk belief, geology, and the languages of Scotland. It covers more than 20 centuries of history, including immigrants,migrants, and emigrants. It extends from Orkney and Shetland to Galloway, the Western Isles to the Borders. It deals extensively with Scots abroad, from Canada to Russia to New Zealand. More than 500,000 words in length, it is comprehensive. It includes entries on historical figures from Columba, Macbeth, and William Wallace to James (Paraffin) Young. It covers Burns Clubs, curling, and shinty. It ranges from clans to Clearances and Covenanters. It aims to explain as well as describe. It is more than a historical dictionary or an encyclopedia. Multi-authored entries analyze key themes such as kingship, national identity, women and society, urban and rural life, the economy, housing, living standards, and religious belief across the centuries in an authoritative but approachable way. The Oxford Companion to Scottish History has a broader range of topics and approaches, and a more much more authoritative list of contributors than any of its competitors. It also stands alone in providing analysis of issues such as national identity and living standards.

Scotland has long had a romantic appeal which has tended to be focused on a few over-dramatized personalities or events, notably Mary Queen of Scots, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Highland Clearances - the failures and the sad - though more positively, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce have also got in on the act, because of their heroism in resisting English aggression. This has had its satisfaction, and has certainly been very good for the tourist industry. But, fueled by the explosion of serious academic studies in the last half-century, there has grown up a keen desire for a better-informed and more satisfying understanding of the Scottish past -- and not only in Scotland. The vague use of 'Britain' in books and television series which are in fact about England has begun to provoke adverse comment; there is clearly a growing desire for knowledge about the history of the non-English parts of the British Isles and Eire, already well established in Ireland and becoming increasingly obvious in Scotland and Wales. This book brings together a series of studies by well-established scholars of Scottish history, from Roman times until the present day, and makes the fruits of their research accessible to students and the general reader alike. It offers the opportunity to go beyond the old myths, legends, and romance to the much more rewarding knowledge of why Scotland was a remarkably successful, thriving, and important kingdom, of international renown.

Christopher Harvie, one of Scotland's leading historians and political writers, takes a long view of Scotland: its land, people, and culture. Scotland: A History sweeps from the earliest settlements to the new Parliament of 1999 and beyond. It describes the unique multi-ethnic kingdom which emerged from the Dark Ages, the small, proud nation maneuvering among the great powers of medieval Europe, and the radical reformation which forced a compromise with its mighty southern neighbor. Harvie follows Scotland's tense partnership with England for over 400 years, through dual monarchy and union, enlightenment and empire, industrialization and de-industrialization. First published over a decade ago, this new edition has been extended - at both ends - to include recent discoveries about Scotland's early pre-historic settlements, through to a new final chapter covering the history, politics, and economics of the country under the Holyrood Parliament - and the background to the controversy over the Independence Referendum of 2014.

An historically and critically sound - and contemporary - evaluation of tartan and tartanry based on proper contextualization and coherent analysis. This critical re-evaluation of one of the more controversial aspects of recent debates on Scottish culture draws together contributions from leading researchers in a wide variety of disciplines, resulting in a highly accessible yet authoritative volume. This book, like tartan, weaves together two strands. The first, like a warp, considers the significance of tartan in Scottish history and culture during the last four centuries, including tartan's role in the development of diaspora identities in North America. The second, like a weft, considers the place of tartan and rise of tartanry in the national and international representations of Scottishness, including heritage, historical myth-making, popular culture, music hall, literature, film, comedy, rock and pop music, sport and 'high' culture.From Tartan to Tartanry offers fresh insight into and new perspectives on key cultural phenomena, from the iconic role of the Scottish regiments to the role of tartan in rock music. It argues that tartan may be fun, but it also plays a wide range of fascinating, important and valuable roles in Scottish and international culture.

This work offers a unique contribution to gender and Scottish history breaking new ground on several fronts: there is no history of inter-war women in Scotland, very little labour or popular political history and virtually nothing published on women, the home and family. This book is a history of women in the period which integrates class and gender history as well as linking the public and private spheres. Using a gendered approach to history it transforms and shifts our knowledge of the Scottish past, unearthing the previously unexplored role which women played in inter-war socialist politics, the General Strike and popular political protest. It re-evaluates these areas and demonstrates the ways in which gender shaped the experience of class and class struggle. Importantly, the book also explores the links between the public and private spheres and addresses the concept of masculinity as well as femininity and pays particular reference to domestic violence. The strength of the book is the ways in which it illuminates the complex interconnections of culture and economic and social structure. Although the research is based on Scottish evidence, it also uses material to address key debates in gender history and labour history which have wider relevance and will appeal to gender historians, labour historians and social and cultural historians as well as social scientists.

Out of the mainstream but ahead of the tide, that is Scottish Science Fiction. Science Fiction emphasizes "progress" through technology, advanced mental states, or future times. How does Scotland, often considered a land of the past, lead in Science Fiction? "Left behind" by international politics, Scots have cultivated alternate places and different times as sites of identity so that Scotland can seem a futuristic fiction itself. This book explores the tensions between science and a particular society that produce an innovative science fiction. Essays consider Scottish thermodynamics, Celtic myth, the rigors of religious "conversion," Scotland's fractured politics yet civil society, its languages of alterity (Scots, Gaelic, allegory, poetry), and the lure of the future. From Peter Pan and Dr. Jekyll to the poetry of Edwin Morgan and the worlds of Muriel Spark, Ken Macleod, or Iain M. Banks, Scotland's creative complex yields a literature that models the future for Science Fiction.

A critical approach to blackness in devolutionary Scottish writing Writing Black Scotland examines race and racism in devolutionary Scottish literature, with a focus on the critical significance of blackness. The book reads blackness in Scottish writing from the 1970s to the early 2000s, a period of history defined by post-imperial adjustment. Critiquing a unifying Britishness at work in black British criticism, Jackson argues for the importance of black politics in Scottish writing, and for a literary registration of race and racism which signals a necessary negotiation for national Scotland both before and after 1997.

This book examines individuals, families and communities of craftworkers and their changing experience in town and country. Based on case studies drawn from personal, business, institutional and official records, as well as newspaper reports and visual illustrations, it looks at workplace dynamics and handmade wares shaped by personal consumption, rather than industrial production. Stana Nenadic examines the 'things' that were made and the values they embodied at a time when most Scots were still engaged in hand making - either for income or pleasure - despite Scotland's emergence as a great industrial powerhouse.

Emblems in the visual arts use motifs which have meanings, and in Emblems in Scotland Michael Bath, leading authority on Renaissance emblem books, shows how such symbolic motifs address major historical issues of Anglo-Scottish relations, the Reformation of the Church and the Union of the Crowns. Emblems are enigmas, and successive chapters ask for instance: Why does a late-medieval rood-screen show a jester at the Crucifixion? Why did Elizabeth I send Mary Queen of Scots tapestries showing the power of women to build a feminist City of God? Why did a presbyterian minister of Stirling decorate his manse with hieroglyphics? And why in the twentieth-century did Ian Hamilton Finlay publish a collection of Heroic Emblems?

The chapters in this volume take as their focus aspects of three of the languages of Scotland: Scots, Scottish English, and Scottish Gaelic. They present linguistic research which has been made possible by new and developing corpora of these languages: this encompasses work on lexis and lexicogrammar, semantics, pragmatics, orthography, and punctuation. Throughout the volume, the findings of analysis are accompanied by discussion of the methodologies adopted, including issues of corpus design and representativeness, search possibilities, and the complementarity and interoperability of linguistic resources. Together, the chapters present the forefront of the research which is currently being directed towards the linguistics of the languages of Scotland, and point to an exciting future for research driven by ever more refined corpora and related language resources.

CultureShock! Scotland provides a fresh look at this country of contrasts. Insights into the people and their culture and traditions. Advise on adapting into the local environment. Essential information on the country's history, traditions, beliefs, etiquette, cuisine and leisure activities. Suggestions on how to get the most out of the travel experience. Linguistic help and hints on how to learn the language and do business. A useful list of foreign words and phrases and a comprehensive resource guide. A glossary books for further reading and a list of interesting websites for additional reference. Lively and humorous illustrations that capture the essence of the text. CultureShock! Scotland provides a fresh look at this country of contrasts. Chock-full of useful tips and information, this book will guide you on how to settle seamlessly in Scotland, the land renowned for its kilts, ceilidh dances, haggis and its great outdoors. Discover what the Scots are truly like, what matters to them and how you can fit into this generous and warm society. Find out more about the nuts and bolts of making our home in Scotland, how to choose the right accommodation, how to brave the erratic weather and even how to set up your own business. Scotland offers much fun and many distractions as well, and the book highlights some of these exciting activities, such as the famous Edinburgh festival for some great performance arts and favorite Scottish pastimes - fishing and golf. CultureShock! Scotland is your all- encompassing guide to finding your way in Scotland and making the country your own.

Robert McColl Millar examines how language has been used in Scotland since the earliest times. While primarily focusing on the histories of the speakers of Scots and Gaelic, and their competition with the encroaching use of (Scottish) Standard English, he also traces the decline and eventual 'death' of Pictish, British and Norn. Four case studies illustrate the historical development of North East Scots, Scottish Standard English, Shetland Scots and Glasgow Scots. Immigrant languages are also discussed throughout the book.

Whisky, Kilts, and the Loch Ness Monster is a memoir of a twenty-first-century literary pilgrimage to retrace the famous eighteenth-century Scottish journey of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, two of the most celebrated writers of their day. William W. Starr enlivens this crisply written travelogue with a playful wit, an enthusiasm for all things Scottish, the boon and burden of American sensibility, and an ardent appreciation for Boswell and Johnson--who make frequent cameos throughout these ramblings. In 1773 the sixty-three-year-old Johnson was England's pre-eminent man of letters, and Boswell, some thirty years Johnson's junior, was on the cusp of achieving his own literary celebrity. For more than one hundred days, the distinguished duo toured what was then largely unknown Scottish terrain, later publishing their impressions of the trip in a pair of classic journals. In 2007 Starr embarked on a three-thousand-mile trek through the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands, following the path--though in reverse--of Boswell and Johnson. He recorded a wealth of keen observations on his encounters with people and places, lochs and lore, castles and clans, fables and foibles. Starr couples his contemporary commentary with passages from Boswell's and Johnson's published accounts, letters, and diaries to weave together a cohesive travel guide to the Scotland of yore and today. This is a celebration of Scottish life and a spirited endorsement of the wondrous, often unexpected discoveries to be made through good travel and good writing.

This first book-length account of the women's liberation movement in Scotland, uses documentary evidence and oral testimony to chart the origins and development of this important social movement. It reveals the inventiveness and fearlessness of feminist activism, while also pointing towards the importance of considering the movement from grassroots perspectives, presenting a more optimistic account of this enduring legacy. It not only uncovers the reach of the WLM but also considers what women's liberation can tell us about the ways in which the development of the movement has been portrayed. Previous accounts have tended to equate the fragmentation of the movement with weakness and decline. This book challenges this conclusion, arguing that fragmentation led to a diffusion of feminist ideas into wider society. In the Scottish context, it led to a lively and flourishing feminist culture where activists highlighted important issues.