Impaled Upon a Thistle: Scotland since 1880


Book Description

Ewen Cameron explores the political debate between unionism, liberalism, socialism and nationalism, and the changing political relationship between Scotland and the United Kingdom. He sets Scottish experience alongside the Irish, Welsh and European, and considers British dimensions of historical change--involvement in two world wars, imperial growth and decline, for example - from a Scottish perspective. He relates political events to trends and movements in the economy, culture and society of the nation's regions--borders, lowlands, highlands, and islands. Underlying the history, and sometimes impelling its ambitions, are the evolution and growth of national self-confidence and identity which fundamentally affected Scotland's destiny in the last century. Dr Cameron ends by considering how such forces may transform it in this one. Like the period it describes this book has politics at its heart. The recent upsurge of scholarship and publication, backed by the author's extensive primary research, underpin its vivid and well-paced narrative.




Scotland


Book Description

An engaging and authoritative history of Scotland's influence in the world and the world's on Scotland, from the Thirty Years War to the present day Scotland is one of the oldest nations in the world, yet by some it is hardly counted as a nation at all. Neither a colony of England nor a fully equal partner in the British union, Scotland's history has often been seen as simply a component part of British history. But the story of Scotland is one of innovation, exploration, resistance--and global consequence. In this wide-ranging, deeply researched account, Murray Pittock examines the place of Scotland in the world. Pittock explores Scotland and Empire, the rise of nationalism, and the pressures on the country from an increasingly monolithic understanding of "Britishness." From the Thirty Years' War to Jacobite risings and today's ongoing independence debates, Scotland and its diaspora have undergone profound changes. This ground-breaking account reveals the diversity of Scotland's history and shows how, after the country disappeared from the map as an independent state, it continued to build a global brand.




The Road to Independence?


Book Description

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




Union and Disunion in the Nineteenth Century


Book Description

This volume examines the nineteenth century not only through episodes, institutions, sites and representations concerned with union, concord and bonds of sympathy, but also through moments of secession, separation, discord and disjunction. Its lens extends from the local and regional, through to national and international settings in Britain, Europe and the United States. The contributors come from the fields of cultural history, literary studies, American studies and legal history.




The Women's Land Army in First World War Britain


Book Description

Between 1917 and 1919 women enlisted in the Women's Land Army, a national organisation with the task of increasing domestic food production. Behind the scenes organisers laboured to not only recruit an army of women workers, but to also dispel public fears that Britain's Land Girls would be defeminized and devalued by their wartime experiences.




Politics in Scotland


Book Description

Politics in Scotland is an authoritative introduction to the contemporary political landscape in Scotland and an essential text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Scottish Politics. Written by leading experts in the field, it is coherently organised to provide a clear and comprehensive overview of a range of themes in contemporary Scottish Politics. Key topics include: • Government and electoral behaviour. • Representation and political parties in Scotland. • Public policy and Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the world. • Scottish politics both in the run up to and after the 2014 referendum. • The Future of Scottish government and politics. This textbook will be essential reading for students of Scottish politics, British Politics, devolution, government and policy.




The Two Unions


Book Description

Alvin Jackson examines the two Unions - the Anglo-Scots Union of 1707 and the British-Irish of 1801 - comparing their background, birth, and survival. In sustaining a comparison between the Unions, he illuminates the long history and current state of the United Kingdom.




Themes and Flux in British Politics


Book Description

Themes and Flux in British Politics provides readers with an engaging and informative overview of the development, change and turbulence in British politics today. It explores the extent to which the ‘old approaches’ to politics and policy are becoming less relevant in the contemporary and emerging UK environment and makes sense of the most significant aspects of the moment: political and electoral alignment, referenda, Brexit and the EU, relationship between UK and devolved governments, and key impact-related developments internationally. As such, it is an essential read for students and observers of British political life who need pointed, expert coverage to help make sense of these exceptional political times. With a tripartite structure, the book first examines trends in political representation with changes in political engagement, party loyalties and electoral alignment, then places this within the turbulence and changing landscape of the policy/political environment, and finally contextualises the developments in British politics vis-à-vis international resonances and parallels. Case studies of the Scottish independence referendum, referendum to remain in or leave the EU and the EU withdrawal process are used to illustrate the key concepts and arguments advanced and to provide a sense of the current dynamic of British politics. Themes and Flux in British Politics represents a timely response to contemporary debates about the major shifts (perhaps crises) of political parties and representation and the turbulent landscape of public policy, and will be essential reading for British politics and government, Brexit, public policy and EU politics.




Edinburgh History of Children's Periodicals


Book Description

Since the publication of the first children's periodical in the 1750s, magazines have been an affordable and accessible way for children to read and form virtual communities. Despite the range of children's periodicals that exist, they have not been studied to the same extent as children's literature. The Edinburgh History of Children's Periodicals marks the first major history of magazines for young people from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Bringing together periodicals from Britain, Ireland, North America, Australia, New Zealand and India, this book explores the roles of gender, race and national identity in the construction of children as readers and writers. It provides new insights both into how child readers shaped the magazines they read and how magazines have encouraged children to view themselves as political and world subjects.




The Age of Anniversaries


Book Description

For historians centennial commemorations furnish an excellent heuristic tool for gauging late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century attitudes towards the past and the present. Centenary celebrations helped to revive, perpetuate and reinforce public perceptions of historical events and people in collective memory. They were fairly infrequent before 1850 but increased in size and numbers by the end of the long nineteenth century, so much so that a ‘cult of the centenary’ had become established throughout the wider Western world around 1900. At one level, such events were ephemeral affairs. And yet many left a lasting legacy. Above all, as part of the contemporary processes of the ‘invention of traditions’ and the conscious national ‘self-historicization’ of the established nation-states, they offer crucial insights into the social, cultural and political dynamics of the period.