Basing his work strongly on documentary and archaeological sources, Alfred Smyth covers traditional topics in a thoroughly unconventional manner.Winner of the 1985 Spring Book Award for Literature (Scottish Arts Council)

A history of the forging of the Scottish kingdom. In AD 1000 the Scottish kings embarked on a dramatic expansion of their territories. Geoffrey Barrow describes the evolution of Scottish kingship and government during the period. He examines the character of Scottish feudalism, considers how Scotland's landscape influenced its society and outlook on the world, and traces the growth of a sense of national identity up to 1306 and the coronation of Robert the Bruce as Robert I.

Challenging traditional assumptions of general late-medieval decline, Alexander Grant demonstrates how the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a crucially important period of change and growth for Scotland. Under Robert Bruce and his successors, Scotland maintained its independence from England and developed its sense of nationhood, with a profound effect upon domestic and foreign affairs. Dr Grant argues that this led to the evolution of a distinctive Scottish government, nobility, Church and economy, and puts Scottish history into the international context of the Hundred Years War, the plague and pre-Reformation Christianity.

Describing the last period of Scotland's existence as an independent kingdom, the major focus of this volume is the events and consequences of the Reformation, that crucial episode which ushered in tremendous spiritual and secular change. Professor Wormald shows how Scotland's rulers, all formidably powerful (with the exception of Mary) and highly cultured, governed a society whose economic and social bonds were still in many ways 'medieval'.

Drawing on political, constitutional,religious, economic and social studies, Professor Mitchison outlines the growing bonds between England and Scotland, beginning with James VI's succession and culminating in the Act of Union in 1707. She argues that the Union has had a distorting effect on Scottish history, constantly prompting comparisons of the constitutions and achievements of the two countries, rather than placing Scotland in a European context. This book attempts to redress the balance.

Union, war, conquest, revolution, attempted invasions, and armed rebellions: this was an eventful time even by the standards of Scotland's turbulent history. At the same time, traditional notions of kinship and community came under strain as profound economic changes reshaped social relations and created new opportunities. Laura A.M. Stewart and Janay Nugent explore the creative volatility of the Anglo-Scottish relationship within a European and transatlantic context. Scotland's integration into the burgeoning British imperial state proved easier for some than others; it also drew Scots into the global slave trade. This is a stimulating account of a contentious period, knowledge of which is crucial for an understanding of British history and the politics of today. This edition in the New History of Scotland series radically updates Rosalind Mitchison's Lordship to Patronage (1983), covering Scotland's history, 1625 - 1745.

186p green paperback, binding firm, very good condition, a few marginal marks to initial pages, this copy published in the year 1981 in the series entitled New History of Scotland

This book celebrates the emergence of the Scots and Scotland from centuries of poverty and backwardness as the nineteenth century saw Scottish locomotives and ships working on land and sea throughout the world, and Scottish technology leading the way. It analyses the ways in which Scots retained their strong sense of national identity despite considerable industrial and social upheaval and asks the question: who are the Scots?

Harvie analyzes the pressures and influences that, over the past ninety years, have eroded Scotland's position as a world industrial power.