Highlanders: A History of the Gaels by John Macleod
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Book Summary Author: John Macleod Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 1997-03-01 ISBN: 0340639911 Number of pages: 324 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton |
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Book Reviews of the Highlanders: A History of the Gaels
Customer Review: A Tough Place of Beauty...
Summary: 4 Stars
John MacLeod's "Highlanders: A History of the Gaels" is popular history with a bite and an edge. MacLeod, a journalist by trade and a longtime resident of the Highlands, narrates the story of the Highlands from the pre-history of the Picts, Celts, and Norsemen through the Scottish dynastic wars of Robert the Bruce, the romanticism of the Stuarts, to Union with England and on into modern times. The prose is stylish, frank and familar rather than scholarly. If the Hebrides get rather much emphasis because the author hails from there, the extra details may be worth the trip to many readers.
As MacLeod relates, the Highlands are a place of much natural beauty, limited economic potential, and often incredibly poor luck in its leaders. The reader is left with the impression of a hardy population saddled with one well-intentioned absentee laird or landlord after another. The periodic mass out-migrations are heart-breaking to read about, but undoubtedly saved many Highlanders from miserable lives working overcrowded, economically marginal land.
MacLeod devotes much time to the evolution of a distinctive Gaelic culture, with its effects on patterns of worship, language, and culture. This topic might have merited its own book; MacLeod does it some justice here.
"Highlanders: A History of the Gaels" is an excellent and readable introduction to the topic, and highly recommended to those planning a visit or frightened off by the heft of more scholarly works.