How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It
by Arthur Herman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Arthur HermanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-09-24
ISBN: 0609809997
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Broadway
Book Reviews of How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It
Book Review: Being at the Right Place at the Right Time is Important to making history
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a terribly interesting an unexpectedly good read, unlike its counterparts (by Tom Cahill "The Gift of the Jews," and "How the Irish Saved Civilization", or Thomas E. Woods "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization," all of which I have reviewed here on Amazon), this is a more organic, more tighten woven narrative about the unusual juxtaposition in space and time of a small but important country; about its strong character and undying streak of independent, its fierce defense of democratic principles, and how these put that little nation in the right place at the right time to have a disproportionate impact on the development of the "New World."
In this sense it is less of a self-promoting ethnocentric claim to greatness as one would expect, or as the other books mentioned above, more or less, are. In the hands of this author, Scottish greatness is as much a natural byproduct of its sibling rivalry with its older, richer, more-powerful and much hated brother, England, as it is about the men, events and character that made Scotland a pivotal data point in modern history.
The first half of the book is tightly written important history, and simply sparkles with every revealing fact, with each scenario and with each multi-generational vendetta that weaves together a compelling story of the Scottish role in a world experiencing tectonic changing in its historical, political and economic contexts. The second half of the book is less interesting as it is more or less what one would expect from the title: a checklist of the great men and their contributions to the modern world.
Taken as a whole, the book reveals three aspects of Scottish history and character that seem determinant in the important role that nation played in inventing the modern world. First is its proximity to its incestuous but nevertheless sibling rival, England. The second lies in a full understanding of the meaning of the phrase "invention of the modern world." And finally the third is in the cantankerous, "in your face," "take no prisoners," Scottish character, best exemplified by the likes of Protestant Reformer John Knox.
With regard to the first two aspects, as a part of the British Isles, at the turn of the 17th Century, Scotland, along with Britain, Holland, Spain and Portugal, was well-placed at the very cusp of a newly emerging and very much uncharted era, the era of adventure and exploration, development of new markets (including slavery from Africa), and the infrastructure of banking needed to support them. This is by definition what is meant by: "inventing the modern world." None of these things played a pivotal role in history before the 16th Century. By virtue of being the little brother of England, Scotland thus got in on the ground floor of these enterprises, so much so, that arguably, without English support, circumstances may have been well beyond Scotland's ability to have been an independent player on the world stage, or have had a determinant impact on the course of modern history. That is to say, as a result of the juxtaposition in time and space alone, Scotland was thrust into the limelight on par with its larger, world-class maritime power, (but still) sibling rival, England.
The first several chapters of the book tells beautifully how Scotland both benefited and suffered from this proximity to the English Crown. It struggled mightily to maintain its independence, sovereignty and national integrity, against the constant and all-consuming encroachment from its larger, stronger, economically more robust and intimidating brother from the South. A large part of Scotland's spunkiness as a "crappy little nation" comes directly from its implacable need to constantly spar with England in order to defend against constant encroachments by one representative of the British Crown or another. In the end, with the Treaty of Union, Scotland was forced by a fait accompli borne out of a conspiracy of existing circumstances, into a compact with the English devil. It was a treaty of capitulation that traded Scottish independence for access to the bounties of British maritime trade and trade routes. This treaty set the course for English dominance over Scotland for the next two centuries.
As for the third and final aspect, although Scotland almost always found itself at a disadvantage, or in a slightly inferior position with regard to the British Crown, this was never perceived as a reason to capitulate, but as a patriotic rallying point to fight with ever more vigor. As the "old World" slowly changed into the "New World," increasingly, the tool of choice was intellectual. Even Scottish religious victories over the Crown and the flowering of Scottish intellectuals across the British Isles more generally, and eventually to the rest of the world, must in the end be seen primarily in intellectual terms. But also and more importantly, the Scottish people always maintained a strong sense of fairness, justice, democracy, rooting for the common man and the underdog, and always coated this with intellectualism for intellectualism's sake and an unadulterated dose of piousness, all of which served its designs well in its long-term struggles with England. As the "New World" opened up, no people were more ideally suited and prepared to take advantage of it than the Scottish. The U.S. became one of the primary beneficiaries of this preparation.
Five Stars
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Summary of How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It
Who formed the first modern nation?Who created the first literate society?
Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism?
The Scots.
Mention of Scotland and the Scots usually conjures up images of kilts, bagpipes, Scotch whisky, and golf. But as historian and author Arthur Herman demonstrates, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland earned the respect of the rest of the world for its crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics?contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since.
Arthur Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. He lucidly summarizes the ideas, discoveries, and achievements that made this small country facing on the North Atlantic an inspiration and driving force in world history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong.
How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William ?Braveheart? Wallace to James Bond.
Victorian historian John Anthony Froude once proclaimed, ?No people so few in number have scored so deep a mark in the world?s history as the Scots have done.? And no one who has taken this incredible historical trek, from the Highland glens and the factories and slums of Glasgow to the California Gold Rush and the search for the source of the Nile, will ever view Scotland and the Scots?or the modern West?in the same way again. For this is a story not just about Scotland: it is an exciting account of the origins of the modern world and its consequences.
?The point of this book is that being Scottish turns out to be more than just a matter of nationality or place of origin or clan or even culture. It is also a state of mind, a way of viewing the world and our place in it. . . . This is the story of how the Scots created the basic idea of modernity. It will show how that idea transformed their own culture and society in the eighteenth century, and how they carried it with them wherever they went. Obviously, the Scots did not do everything by themselves: other nations?Germans, French, English, Italians, Russians, and many others?have their place in the making of the modern world. But it is the Scots more than anyone else who have created the lens through which we see the final product. When we gaze out on a contemporary world shaped by technology, capitalism, and modern democracy, and struggle to find our place as individuals in it, we are in effect viewing the world as the Scots did. . . . The story of Scotland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is one of hard-earned triumph and heart-rending tragedy, spilled blood and ruined lives, as well as of great achievement.?
?FROM THE PREFACE
From the Hardcover edition.
"I am a Scotsman," Sir Walter Scott famously wrote, "therefore I had to fight my way into the world." So did any number of his compatriots over a period of just a few centuries, leaving their native country and traveling to every continent, carving out livelihoods and bringing ideas of freedom, self-reliance, moral discipline, and technological mastery with them, among other key assumptions of what historian Arthur Herman calls the "Scottish mentality."
It is only natural, Herman suggests, that a country that once ranked among Europe's poorest, if most literate, would prize the ideal of progress, measured "by how far we have come from where we once were." Forged in the Scottish Enlightenment, that ideal would inform the political theories of Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and David Hume, and other Scottish thinkers who viewed "man as a product of history," and whose collective enterprise involved "nothing less than a massive reordering of human knowledge" (yielding, among other things, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, first published in Edinburgh in 1768, and the Declaration of Independence, published in Philadelphia just a few years later). On a more immediately practical front, but no less bound to that notion of progress, Scotland also fielded inventors, warriors, administrators, and diplomats such as Alexander Graham Bell, Andrew Carnegie, Simon MacTavish, and Charles James Napier, who created empires and great fortunes, extending Scotland's reach into every corner of the world.
Herman examines the lives and work of these and many more eminent Scots, capably defending his thesis and arguing, with both skill and good cheer, that the Scots "have by and large made the world a better place rather than a worse place." --Gregory McNamee
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