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

Book Overview

How the Scots Invented the Modrern World was a veritable hardcover smash, selling more than 48,000 copies in five printings and landing on bestseller lists across the nation, including the Washington... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609809997
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.9" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

One of the few books I kept when I had to downsize to a small apartment.

I love this book. Seriously love it. I've read it over many times. It never gets boring. There are fascinating details clipped to every page. Until I read this book I was not that impressed with my Scottish ancestry. Rather, I downplayed it. Now I proudly proclaim my Scottish ancestry along with my Dutch heritage. Another history gem I can highly recommend is, Nathaniel's Nutmeg : Or, the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History by Giles Milton. I see there are several copies on this site for sale at this time.

More than just Bobby Burns

Reviewing Thomas Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization evoked a nagging question: "Why hasn't someone done this for the Scots?" Now, someone has, and a highly worthwhile read it is. Herman tears down a few misconceptions about the Scots as he rebuilds their image as original thinkers and practical achievers. Herman is not the first to consider John Knox as the taproot of the Scottish expression. Knox's Calvinist severity, however, often clouds the fact that the Scots severed from the Catholic church only a generation after Henry VIII achieved that for England. And they accomplished it without the power of a monarch. Herman sees Knox's thinking as planting seeds leading to a flowering of democratic ideals. These ideals weren't lofty theoretical flights, however. In an excellent summary over two chapters, Herman outlines the Scottish Enlightenment and the men who created it. Unlike the Continental Enlightenment, the Scots version had a deep religious base. They sought their deity through rational investigation, searching for its expression rather than pushing it to a distance as did the Deists. These Scots saw "the proper study of mankind" as a practical question leading to social betterment. Education became a universal in Scotland at a time when most schooling remained under the cloak of religious authority. Herman contends the Act of Union as of immense benefit to Scottish society at many levels. The chief result was the elimination of prejudicial economic policy. As long as they remained independent, the Scots were unable to compete with English mercantilists. While many Scottish nationalists see the Act of Union as a subversion of local values, Herman, along with many Scots, view it as providing new opportunities. He stresses the opened doors to trade led to rapid enrichment of the port cities of Scotland and world-wide contacts. Ships meant shipbuilding and many Scots later brought their talents to the New World resulting in the speedy clipper ships. Herman follows the exodus of Scots around the globe - North America, Australia, India. Each place they entered, they left a mark. Most of it seems positive today - strong commercial enterprise, extending education, uplifting political ideals. Herman paints a glorious picture, deftly omitting a few blemishes. His descriptions of the Highland clans verges on the romantic, but fails to note their signal of the burning cross emigrated to become the image of America's Ku Klux Klan. Scots driven from their home lands resulted in many becoming the slave overseers of the South's plantations. These are minor points. The scope of Herman's book, as he states, is global, both physically and intellectually. He has assembled a wealth of material, presented it forcefully and cogently. There's much more to deal with here than simply learning something [more?] about the Scots. Too often portrayed as backward romantics, Herman has shown the Scots to be an essential foundation for toda

Required reading for history enthusiasts

Arthur Herman writes a convincing portrayal of the Scottish people as coming from a financially poor but intellectually rich country. In the early 1700s the Scottish Enlightenment began and with it came a greatly enhanced understanding of our world and breakthrough philosopies in economies, physics and many other sciences. From the economic principles of Adam Smith, and philosophies of David Hume to the inventions of Alexander Graham Bell and financial empires of Andrew Carnegie there seems to be no area of modern life where the Scottish influence was not felt. In relation to other countries the people and contributions presented in this book show a disporporationately larger contribution by the Scottish society to our modern life than any other single nationality.One of the significant contributions of the Scottish Enlightenment to the United States was the teachings of Hutcheson that oppressed people have a right to rise up against their oppressor and establish a free society. In addition, many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were either Scottish or descendents of Scots. In many ways the writings of the Scottish Enlightenment period formed the underpinnings for the basic philosophies of the United States. Herman goes on with example after example of how the Scottish Enlightenment and the concepts born there significantly influenced the modern world. A thoroughly fascinating read that kept surprising me with the magnitude of the contributions of the Scottish people to our modern world, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in history.

A Must Read

The Scotland of William Wallace is not the Scotland that Arthur Herman celebrates in "How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything In It." To the contrary, Scotland's triumphant moment came four centuries after Braveheart's death, according to Herman, when Scotland welcomed--not threw off--the English. "In the span of a single generation it would transform Scotland from a Third World country into a modern society and open up a cultural and social revolution," Herman asserts. "Far from finding themselves slaves to the English, as opponents had prophesied, Scots experienced an unprecedented freedom and mobility." While its title intentionally embraces the Scottish tradition of boasting and exaggerating, "How the Scots Invented the Modern World" makes a strong case that the Scots, more than any other people, are responsible for the world after the Enlightenment. What followed unification was not merely a Scottish renaissance, but a revolution in thought that changed the world. Adam Smith, David Hume, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Boswell, Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, Sir Walter Scott, and George Buchanan are among the Scots Herman discusses. Perfecting the steam engine, introducing inoculation to fight smallpox, inventing street lamps, devising the system of time zones, and discovering the simple method to prevent scurvy were all products of the Scottish imagination. "How the Scots Invented the Modern World" tells an untold story with wit and eloquence. This provocative book will gain the interest of Scots and non-Scots alike who are left to wonder how a small group living in the shadow of their southern neighbors had such a positive impact upon the world in which we live.

An outstanding overview of the Scottish Enlightenment

I can't say enough good things about this book. It is an extremely well-written and well-researched history of Scotland following the unification with England in 1707, built around the contributions Scots have made to the modern world. Filled with historical detail, it still manages to be easily readable and there is scarcely a dull paragraph in the entire work.The author provides a window through which the reader can peer into the fascinating world of mid-18th Century Scotland and the people who inhabited it. Adam Smith, David Hume, Lord Kames, James Watt and other crucial figures to Western history walk through these pages. Not only is this work informative, but it is wonderfully entertaining- exactly what popular history should be.This book fills what had been a missing gap in popular history. I urge you to read it.

A great book

This book may do for the Scots what Thomas Cahill did for the Irish when he wrote "How the Irish Saved Western Civilization." It's a highly readable and impressive piece of scholarship on an aspect of history that's been overlooked or ignored: How much our modern culture owes to the people of Scotland. It neatly manages to celebrate the Scottish achievement without veering into any kind of ethnic chauvinism. The author, incidentally, is not Scottish--he's merely a historian and a storyteller, telling us something we probably haven't heard before. People of Scottish ancestry will love this book, but so will anyone who enjoys learning about how we became who we are.