Scotland: A Short History: new edition - Softcover

Harvie, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198714882 ISBN 13: 9780198714880

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2014

Synopsis

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 manoeuvring among the great powers of medieval Europe, and the radical reformation which forced a compromise with its mighty southern neighbour. 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.

About this title

About the Author

Christopher Harvie was born in 1944 in then-industrial Motherwell, and brought up in the Scottish Borders, to which he has now returned, to look after his near-centenarian parents. The author of fifteen books about the European, British, and Scottish past and contemporary affairs, he was a founder-historian at the Open University in 1969, and taught at the historic University of Tuebingen from 1980-2007. Associated with Gordon Brown in the frustrated devolution campaign of the 1970s, he served as an SNP member of the Scottish Parliament 2007-11 and as adviser to Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond. The HERALD newspaper voted him its 'Free Spirit of Parliament' in 2008, and the Berlin government gave him its Bundesverdienstkreuz in 2012.

Review

Review from previous edition: "unfailingly entertaining, with quite a remarkable breadth and range, mixing literature and art into the usual staples of history. He summarises with confidence and elegance: try his brief account of Mary Queen of Scots's unhappy life, or his rendering of that
terrible can of worms, the seventeenth century."

--Arnold Kemp, The Observer

"A book of this kind from Chris Harvie is an important literary and historiographical event... it is inspiring how he embraces the world of culture and ideas with a sense of vision which very few historians can match"

--Dauvit Broun, University of Glasgow

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0198714882
• ISBN 13: 9780198714880
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288