Tom M Devine Książki

Tells the story of Scotland's role in forging and expanding the British Empire, from the Americas to Australia, India to the Caribbean. In this book, the author traces the vital part Scotland played in creating an empire - and the fundamental effect this had in moulding the modern Scottish nation.

In 1999, for the first time since 1707, a Scottish parliament took substantial control of the national destiny. And here, for the first time in a generation, is a trenchant single-volume overview of Scotland's last three centuries.

The question 'who are we?' continues to perplex many Scots today. The 100 short essays in this book help to expand the debate and provide at least some of the answers. They offer an opportunity to penetrate behind the statistical surveys and explore the rich complexity of changing identity from a varied range of opinion.The collection includes the views of people at the centre of things as well as those at the margins of society, the famous as well as the not so well known, the authoritative and mainstream as well as the idiosyncratic. It also contains a few views 'from the outside', from North America, Europe and elsewhere.It examines the concept and experience of being Scottish at this time in history and assesses its relevance, strengths, advantages and weaknesses. It seeks to discover whether there is a special something which makes the Scottish distinctive and immediately recognisable and, if so, attempts to describe it. In short it is a snapshot of Scottish identity or, as seems to the case,

'Deserves to be read by everyone interested in the future of the United Kingdom' Andrew Marr, The Sunday Times There can be no relationship in Europe's history more creative, significant, vexed and uneasy than that between Scotland and England. From the Middle Ages onwards the island of Britain has been shaped by the unique dynamic between Edinburgh and London, exchanging inhabitants, monarchs, money and ideas, sometimes in a spirit of friendship and at others in a spirit of murderous dislike. Tom Devine's seminal new book explores this extraordinary history in all its ambiguity, from the seventeenth century to the present. When not undermining each other with invading armies, both Scotland and England have broadly benefitted from each other's presence - indeed for long periods of time nobody questioned the union which joined them. But as Devine makes clear, it has for the most part been a relationship based on consent, not force, on mutual advantage, rather than antagonism - and it has always held the possibility of a political parting of the ways. With the United Kingdom under a level of scrutiny unmatched since the eighteenth century Independence or Union is the essential guide.