Highlanders: A History of the Gaels by John Macleod
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Book Reviews of Highlanders: A History of the Gaels
Book 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.
Book Review: Where did we go wrong?
Summary: 4 Stars
Thoroughly readable history of our people - but very little on the diaspora.This book however does deal with contemporary Highland society, so if you're only interested in a sentimental look at the past, you can still enjoy the majority of this book
Book Review: An easy read, but loses interest in the latter half
Summary: 3 Stars
This book covers over 1000 years of history in the Highlands region of Scotland. As is implied by the title, this is a people's history - there is no geological/natural history of the Highlands, except where the land has been used/altered by man. The first portions of the book are fascinating, detailing the early immigration to the west coast and islands of Scotland, the coming of missionaries, Vikings, the union of Scotland under one crown in Edinburgh, and, of course, the uprising led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Unfortunately, I found myself losing interest in the latter half of the book, with its heavy focus on church squabbling. While undoubtedly of importance in understanding the "Highlands Problem," it could have been dealt with in a more expedient manner, without the enumeration of every schism that occurred.The title is perhaps mileading. It is, in fact, a history of the people in the Highlands (and those in England, Norway, etc. that directly affected the Highlanders). Therefore, the book focusses on the people of this area of Scotland, while essentially ignoring the history of the people who immigrated there in the first place (from Ireland, Scandenavia, etc.), or the people that emigrated (to Canada, Australia, etc.) from the Highlands in later years. The author even points out that early in the 1900's, there were four times the number of Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia than there were in the Highlands - surely some stories of these pioneers deserve treatment in the book titled "A History of the Gaels."
Finally, the maps are woefully inadequate. There are some political maps, but they do not include the locations of many of the towns mentioned in the narrative, and virtually none of the castles. Further, they are scattered throughout the book with no reference to them in the text, further adding to the difficulty in referencing them.
The strength of the book is certainly the readability. The first half is fantastic. The second half is only okay, as it seems to belabour certain issues to the point where the reader loses interest. It's certainly an adequate (and modern - published in 1997) entry for anyone interested in the history of the Highlands' peoples, with enough details to further educate those with a more intimate knowledge of the Highlands.
Book Review: Islanders - A History of the Northern Hebrides
Summary: 3 Stars
The author does give a good background on the Highlands in general in the early part of the book, but his focus is really on Lewis/Harris for the most part. This is a very personal popular history. There are good points and bad in that. The reader gets in-depth information about some cultural/local things that are probably not covered as well anywhere else (ie the Presbyterian factions vying for control of the souls of Northern Islanders). If these kinds of things do not stir you, you may be a little disappointed. I found some of this interesting. I was particularly moved by the story of the wreck of the Iolaire. I don't suppose it is a story that one would run across anywhere else.As a good introduction to some of the larger issues, it serves well. The first part of the book is a good review of the various peoples and cultures that made up the Highlands. The crofting culture and the Clearances are treated well and the reader is pointed toward authors who can go into these subjects in greater depth ( ie James Hunter).
One very frustrating (for me) habit of the author is to quote other sources (Paul Johnson, John Prebble) without citing the work it is taken from either in the body of the text, in notes or even in the bibliography.
The author admits that he has "a strong bias towards traditional Highland Presbyterianism, and a corresponding disdain for rites Roman and Anglican." Those who wince at Catholics being called "Papists" and Catholicism generally ignored or disparaged, might do well to look elsewhere. The author does not mention, even in passing, the Penal Laws against Catholics, whereby practicing Catholicism became a treasonable offense (the first offense meant confiscation of all property, the second, banishment and the third, death) are not mentioned at all. This pogrom against Catholics in the 17th and 18th centuries is why Evangelicals in the 19th century could come in to fill a religious vacuum.
I recommend this book, but would urge that it not be the only work you read on the Highlands. John Prebble's books are great reading. I have thoroughly enjoyed his accounts of Glencoe and Culloden. I continue to look for an overview of the Highlands and Islands that is more scholarly and balanced.
Book Review: Broad Sweep
Summary: 1 Stars
The author attempts too broad a sweep in this popular history. A glance at the rather slender bibliography indicates a strong religious bias; a more balanced view is required. There are the distortions typical of a single volume when complex events are condensed. The author would do well to consider Irish sources as Gaelic-speaking Scotland and Ireland were a single cultural entity for more than a millenium. To consider the history of one without the other results in an incomplete record and debatable conclusions.
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