Scotland: The Story of a Nation
by Magnus Magnusson, Magnus Magnasson

List Price: $40.00
Our Price: $15.71
You Save: $24.29 (61%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.31 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of Scotland: The Story of a Nation

Book Review: WONDERFUL BOOK ON SCOTLAND.........
Summary: 5 Stars

MANY PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW JUST HOW IMPORTANT SCOTLAND WAS AND IS IN THE
HISTORY OF THE WORLD. THIS IS A VERY COLORFUL COUNTRY AND THIS
BOOK ALLOWS YOU TO SEE ALL THE COLOR AND GRANDUR OF IT'S HISTORY
AND IMPORTANCE IN MAN'S QUEST FOR FREEDOM.

I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ALL WHO LOVE FREEDOM AND COLORFUL HISTORY.

Summary of Scotland: The Story of a Nation

Magnus Magnusson, a native of Iceland who has long lived in and written about Scotland, may spoil it for some readers when he writes that Wallace's Sword probably wasn't Wallace's. To use it, Wallace would have had to have stood at least 6-foot-6 in height and to have lived two centuries later. The business of the sword is just one of the "cherished conceptions" about Scottish history that Magnusson picks apart and then, corrected and improved, restores. At other turns he considers the true identity of the legendary king Macbeth (and entertains some surprising but plausible theories about the king's alter ego); reconstructs decisive battles such as Otterburn, Flodden, and Glencoe; and looks closely at the complicated negotiations (and, many would say, treacheries) that led to the union with England of 1707. Magnusson closes with an account of modern independence movements and the recent return of some measure of national autonomy, opening a "new chapter in a nation's story, which the people of Scotland are now beginning to write."

Lucid, witty, and unafraid of controversy, Magnusson's book does a fine job of condensing a complex history, stretching out for 10 millennia, into a single volume. --Gregory McNamee

England Books

• Books > Subjects > History > Europe
• Scotland