How the Scots Invented the Modern World

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Critics found the book well-written [1] and scholarly but with an over-reaching thesis. [15] [20] [21] The reviewer for the National Review defended Herman's use of the word "invented", writing that it has "an older meaning: to discover and understand. The [Scots] did not, like a number of their French counterparts, seek to construct a new world ... they instead tried to understand certain traditions and institutions that had spontaneously arisen in the course of man's work, but that were still misunderstood even by many intelligent observers." [22] In The Scotsman, reviewer George Kerevan wrote that Herman may have successfully proven his thesis but does not satisfactorily account for "why Scotland?" [23] Arthur L. Herman. The Saumur assembly 1611: Huguenot political belief and action in the age of Marie de Medici [ permanent dead link]. Johns Hopkins University, Dissertation by Arthur L. Herman, 1984. Starting in the century or so before the Enlightenment period, Herman explains the various factors that led to the Union of 1707. He shows the stranglehold that the Kirk had on Scottish society, but that out of this grew the idea of man as a free individual – that monarchs were not absolute and that tyrannies could and should be challenged. He gives the Kirk the credit for the idea that education should be for all, making Scotland one of the most literate societies in the world, with an appetite for books other than the Bible. And he explains very clearly the impact of the Darien scheme on both the financial state of Scotland and on its self-confidence as a nation. In Herman’s view, the Union was a resoundingly positive development for Scotland, despite its unpopularity amongst ordinary people, since it opened up opportunities and access to the rest of the world via the rapidly developing British Empire, hence revolutionising Scotland both economically and culturally. Not content with inventing the telephone, Scotland also discovered electromagnetism which is the basis for mobile phones and wi-fi. Tie it all together -- not in boring straight-line fashion -- but with analysis of philosophies, trends and other factors that complete the historical context in high-def living color, a story worth reading because of its intensity.

Scottish Tradition Vol.27 2002 - University of Guelph Scottish Tradition Vol.27 2002 - University of Guelph

Herman neatly sidesteps the question of whether the West is actually in decline. His disclaimer at the outset is that he only intends to trace the idea of decline as expressed by intellectual Continue reading »As a general introduction to the Scottish thinkers of the 18th century and to the subsequent activities of the Scottish diaspora, it is sensible and measured. Unfortunately, the author does not know when to stop. In rightly praising the Scots for their remarkable achievements, he wants to make them responsible for everything. HOW THE SCOTS INVENTED THE MODERN WORLD THE TRUE STORY OF HOW WESTERN EUROPE’S POOREST NATION CREATED OUR WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT

How The Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How The Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of

Arthur L. Herman. Confederate Statues Honor Timeless Virtues — Let Them Stay, National Review, August 19, 2017. Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil. 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.”

Consider the title of this book: How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It. (The word "true" is something of a give away.) 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.”

How Scotland invented the modern world | Metro News How Scotland invented the modern world | Metro News

You could argue that this makes Scotland largely responsible for the global financial crisis. Thanks a lot, Scotland. The faithful received one single compensation for this harsh authoritarian regime, and it was a powerful one: direct access to God. The right of communion, receiving the body and blood of Christ in the form of wine and bread, now belonged to everyone, rich and poor, young and old, men and women. In the Catholic Church, the Bible had been literally a closed book. Now anyone who could read, or listen to someone else read, could absorb the Word of God. On Sundays the church rafters rang with the singing of psalms and recitations from the Gospel. The Lord's Supper became a community festival, with quantities, sometimes plentiful, of red wine and shortcake (John Knox presided over one Sunday communion where the congregation consumed eight and a half gallons of claret).The Scots here get all the credit, for everything from humanistic philosophy to capitalism to the steam engine to Agent 007. TV was invented by John Logie Baird in 1925, although had he foreseen Celebrity Big Brother then he might have invented something else instead. It was both exciting and fulfilling to read the history that led up to the Battle of Culloden and beyond, to meet the historical figures and read the family names from her books in the context of the history she drew on.

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Proudman, Mark (December 4, 2004). "Forget the Scots; it was the Royal Navy". The Globe and Mail. p.D5. To be honest, I'm a reader of historical fiction not history per se. But I am such a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series that I bought this book to broaden my understanding of the events in her novels.But with that small reservation aside, I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants a clearer understanding of the history of this period, both as it affected Scotland and the wider world. And, in this year of the Scottish Independence referendum, a useful reminder of the reasons behind the Union and the early economic benefits of it, providing food for thought for either camp as to whether those reasons and benefits are still relevant today. A lively intellectual life in the burgeoning cities of the Scottish lowlands put Scotland at the forefront of the 18 th century enlightenment. The Scottish Enlightenment was more practical and aligned with common sense than was the Enlightenment of the French philosophes. David Hume and Adam Smith are just two of the significant Scottish thinkers of this era. The works of Hume and of Smith (e.g. The Wealth of Nations) are still required reading today in the fields of philosophy and of economics. Knox and Buchanan believed that political power was ordained by God, but that that power was vested not in kings or in nobles or even in the clergy, but in the people. The Presbyterian covenant with God required them to defend that power against any interloper. Punishing idolatry and destroying tyranny was a sacred duty laid by God on "the whole body of the people," Knox wrote, "and of every man in his vocation." Regarding the title and thesis, that the people of Scotland invented the modern world, nearly every reviewer commented on it, some calling it "provocative", [14] a "hyperbole", [15] "absurd" and "pandering to prejudice". [13]