Scotland: a New History

Description

This full length history of Scotland is made up of 25 chapters spanning 18 centuries, from the Picts to the 1980s and is designed for the general reader. A particular feature of the book is the attention it gives to social and cultural history, including life in towns, the changing role of the nobles, and the shifting images of Scottish identity through the ages. The landmarks of Scottish history - the Wars of Independence, the Reformation, the Union of Crowns and the Union of Parliaments, the Jacobite rebellions, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, are all covered. The author is the editor of "The Innes Review", literary editor of the Scottish History Society and has written books on Edinburgh and the Reformation, Mary, Queen of Scots and the Scottish Burghs.

Michael Lynch is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. His research interests are in modern European and Chinese history and his recent publications include: Mao (2004), Modern China (2006), Autocracy to Communism: Russia 1894-1941 (2008), and Nazi Germany (2012).

It's a book that seems more like a multi-volume history, so sweeping is it; yet lucid and captivating even in detailed areas... Fundamental to Lynch's approach is a sense of connection between now and then, however far back; he continuously shows how Scottish identity refashions its heroes and myths, yet clings to survival -- Douglas Gifford A monumental achievement * Times Literary Supplement * Breathtaking and absorbing * Scottish Field * Fascinating...it ought to be compulsory reading for all MPs, journalists and commentators before they were permitted to talk about European economic and political union -- Tom Wilkie * Independent *