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How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It Paperback – September 24, 2002
byArthur Herman(Author)
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An exciting account of the origins of the modern world
Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? The Scots. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics—contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since.
Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong.
How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William “Braveheart” Wallace to James Bond.
And no one who takes this incredible historical trek will ever view the Scots—or the modern West—in the same way again.
Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? The Scots. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics—contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since.
Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong.
How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William “Braveheart” Wallace to James Bond.
And no one who takes this incredible historical trek will ever view the Scots—or the modern West—in the same way again.
- Print length480 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCrown
- Publication dateSeptember 24, 2002
- Dimensions5.18 x 1.01 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100609809997
- ISBN-13978-0609809990
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From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Finally we have a book that explains how the . . . Scots created the modern civilized values America and the Western world still uphold. This is a great book, one which is now even more relevant than ever.”—Michael Barone,U.S. News & World Report, coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics
“Arthur Herman provides a convincing and compelling argument. . . . He is a natural writer, weaving philosophical concerns seamlessly through a historical narrative that romps along at a cracking pace.”—Irvine Welsh,The Guardian
“Herman’s book tells an exciting story with gusto . . . its range and narrative verve make it an entertaining and illuminating read.”—Sunday Times (London)
“Arthur Herman provides a convincing and compelling argument. . . . He is a natural writer, weaving philosophical concerns seamlessly through a historical narrative that romps along at a cracking pace.”—Irvine Welsh,The Guardian
“Herman’s book tells an exciting story with gusto . . . its range and narrative verve make it an entertaining and illuminating read.”—Sunday Times (London)
From the Back Cover
“Finally we have a book that explains how the . . . Scots created the modern civilized values America and the Western world still uphold. This is a great book, one which is now even more relevant than ever.”—Michael Barone,U.S. News & World Report, coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics
“Arthur Herman provides a convincing and compelling argument. . . . He is a natural writer, weaving philosophical concerns seamlessly through a historical narrative that romps along at a cracking pace.” —Irvine Welsh,The Guardian
“Herman’s book tells an exciting story with gusto . . . its range and narrative verve make it an entertaining and illuminating read.” —Sunday Times (London)
“A skeptic could easily be converted by Herman’s deft presentation . . . this work sets a high academic standard yet is carefully leavened with colorful anecdotes.”
“Arthur Herman provides a convincing and compelling argument. . . . He is a natural writer, weaving philosophical concerns seamlessly through a historical narrative that romps along at a cracking pace.” —Irvine Welsh,The Guardian
“Herman’s book tells an exciting story with gusto . . . its range and narrative verve make it an entertaining and illuminating read.” —Sunday Times (London)
“A skeptic could easily be converted by Herman’s deft presentation . . . this work sets a high academic standard yet is carefully leavened with colorful anecdotes.”
About the Author
Arthur Herman is the bestselling author of The Cave and the Light,Freedom’s Forge, How the Scots Invented the Modern World, The Idea of Decline in Western History, To Rule the Waves,and Gandhi & Churchill, which was a 2009 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Herman taught the Western Heritage Program at the Smithsonian’s Campus on the Mall, and he has been a professor of history at Georgetown University, The Catholic University of America, George Mason University, and The University of the South at Sewanee.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The New Jerusalem
I
Just as the German Reformation was largely the work of a single individual, Martin Luther, so the Scottish Reformation was the achievement of one man of heroic will and tireless energy: John Knox.
Like Luther, Knox left an indelible mark on his national culture. Uncompromising, dogmatic, and driven, John Knox was a prolific writer and a preacher of truly terrifying power. His early years as a Protestant firebrand had been spent in exile, imprisonment, and even penal servitude chained to a rowing bench in the king's galleys. The harsh trials toughened him physically and spiritually for what was to come. He became John Knox, "he who feared the face of no man." Beginning in 1559, Knox single-handedly inspired, intimidated, and bullied Scotland's nobility and urban classes into overthrowing the Catholic Church of their forebears and adopting the religious creed of Geneva's John Calvin. Its austere and harsh dogmas?that the Bible was the literal Word of God, that the God of that Bible was a stern and jealous God, filled with wrath at all sinners and blasphemers, and that the individual soul was by God's grace predestined to heaven or hell regardless of any good works or charitable intentions?were themselves natural extensions of Knox's own personality. Calvinism seemed as natural to him as breathing, and he taught a generation of Scotsmen to believe the same thing themselves.
Above all, John Knox wanted to turn the Scots into God's chosen people, and Scotland into the New Jerusalem. To do this, Knox was willing to sweep away everything about Scotland's past that linked it to the Catholic Church. As one admirer said, "Others snipped at the branches of Popery; but he strikes at the roots, to destroy the whole." He and his followers scoured away not only Scottish Catholicism but all its physical manifestations, from monasteries and bishops and clerical vestments to holy relics and market-square crosses. They smashed stained-glass windows and saints' statues, ripped out choir stalls and roodscreens, and overturned altars. All these symbols of a centuries-old tradition of religious culture, which we would call great works of art, were for Knox marks of "idolatry" and "the synagogue of Satan," as he called the Roman Catholic Church. In any case, the idols disappeared from southern Scotland, and the Scottish Kirk rose up to take their place.
Knox and his lieutenants also imposed the new rules of the Calvinist Sabbath on Scottish society: no working (people could be arrested for plucking a chicken on Sunday), no dancing, and no playing of the pipes. Gambling, cardplaying, and the theater were banned. No one could move out of a parish without written permission of the minister. The Kirk wiped out all traditional forms of collective fun, such as Carnival, Maytime celebrations, mumming, and Passion plays. Fornication brought punishment and exile; adultery meant death. The church courts, or kirk-sessions, enforced the law with scourges, pillories, branks (a padlocked iron helmet that forced an iron plate into the mouth of a convicted liar or blasphemer), ducking-stools, banishment, and, in the case of witches or those possessed by the devil, burning at the stake.
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 congregation was the center of everything. It elected its own board of elders or presbyters; it even chose its minister. The congregation's board of elders, the consistory, cared for the poor and the sick; it fed and clothed the community's orphans. Girls who were too poor to have a dowry to tempt a prospective husband got one from the consistory. It was more than just fear of the ducking-stool or the stake that bound the Kirk together. It was a community united by its commitment to God and its sense of chosenness. "God loveth us," John Knox had written, "because we are His own handiwork."
To a large extent Knox's mission to create the New Jerusalem in Scotland succeeded. The Reformation laid down strong roots in the Scottish Lowlands, that belt of fertile land and river valleys running from the Firth of Clyde and Glasgow in the extreme west to just north of Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall across to Edinburgh and Berwick-on-Tweed in the east. North of this in the beautiful but barren and sparsely populated Highlands, its record was more spotty. But in all the areas that came under his influence, the Kirk created a new society in the image of Knox's utopian ideal. It had turned its back not only on Scotland's past, but on all purely secular values, no matter what the source. Knox made his view clear in one of his last letters before he died in November 1572. "All worldlie strength, yea even in things spiritual, decays, and yet shall never the work of God decay."
One of those pillars of "worldlie strength" that Knox despised was political authority, or more precisely the power of monarchs. Perhaps because Knox's closest allies were Scottish nobles who wanted to see the Scottish monarchy tamed, or because nearly every monarch he dealt with was either a child or a woman (the boy king Edward VI of England, Mary Queen of Scots, the Scottish Regent Mary of Guise, and English queens Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I), he treated them all with impatience and contempt. Yet neither Mary of Guise nor Mary Queen of Scots could do without him. Even though they were Catholics, Knox represented a spiritual authority they needed to legitimize their own. When Queen Mary announced her plans to marry her worthless cousin Lord Darnley, Knox gave her such a fierce public scolding that she burst into tears in full view of her court. She made the mistake of marrying Darnley anyway, and set in motion the series of scandals that would finally push her off the throne. By 1570, Knox recognized that Mary no longer had any part to play in making the New Jerusalem and he swept her aside, like a useless piece from the game board. Her infant son James VI was installed in her place, with George Buchanan, Scotland's leading humanist, as his tutor, so that the boy could be raised in the Presbyterian faith.
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."
Here was a vision of politics unlike any other at the time. George Buchanan turned it into a full-fledged doctrine of popular sovereignty, the first in Europe. Buchanan came from Stirlingshire in central Scotland, at a time when it was still much like the Highlands in its culture and character -- in fact, Buchanan grew up speaking both Gaelic and Scots. He studied at the University of St. Andrews and then at the University of Paris alongside other future giants of the Reformation such as John Calvin and Ignatius Loyola, the later founder of the Jesuits. As a Greek and Latin scholar, Buchanan had few peers. But he was also a founding father of Scottish Presbyterianism: he served as Moderator of the Kirk's General Assembly -- the only layman ever to do so -- and helped write the Kirk's First Book of Discipline. His greatest achievement, however, was his book on the nature of political authority, titled The Law of Government Among the Scots, published in 1579.
In it Buchanan asserted that all political authority ultimately belonged to the people, who came together to elect someone, whether a king or a body of magistrates, to manage their affairs. The people were always more powerful than the rulers they created; they were free to remove them at will. "The people," he explained, "have the right to confer the royal authority upon whomever they wish." This is the sort of view we are used to ascribing to John Locke; in fact, it belongs to a Presbyterian Scot from Stirlingshire writing more than a hundred years earlier. And Buchanan went further. When the ruler or rulers failed to act in the people's interest, Buchanan wrote, then each and every citizen, even "the lowest and meanest of men," had the sacred right and duty to resist that tyrant, even to the point of killing him.
I
Just as the German Reformation was largely the work of a single individual, Martin Luther, so the Scottish Reformation was the achievement of one man of heroic will and tireless energy: John Knox.
Like Luther, Knox left an indelible mark on his national culture. Uncompromising, dogmatic, and driven, John Knox was a prolific writer and a preacher of truly terrifying power. His early years as a Protestant firebrand had been spent in exile, imprisonment, and even penal servitude chained to a rowing bench in the king's galleys. The harsh trials toughened him physically and spiritually for what was to come. He became John Knox, "he who feared the face of no man." Beginning in 1559, Knox single-handedly inspired, intimidated, and bullied Scotland's nobility and urban classes into overthrowing the Catholic Church of their forebears and adopting the religious creed of Geneva's John Calvin. Its austere and harsh dogmas?that the Bible was the literal Word of God, that the God of that Bible was a stern and jealous God, filled with wrath at all sinners and blasphemers, and that the individual soul was by God's grace predestined to heaven or hell regardless of any good works or charitable intentions?were themselves natural extensions of Knox's own personality. Calvinism seemed as natural to him as breathing, and he taught a generation of Scotsmen to believe the same thing themselves.
Above all, John Knox wanted to turn the Scots into God's chosen people, and Scotland into the New Jerusalem. To do this, Knox was willing to sweep away everything about Scotland's past that linked it to the Catholic Church. As one admirer said, "Others snipped at the branches of Popery; but he strikes at the roots, to destroy the whole." He and his followers scoured away not only Scottish Catholicism but all its physical manifestations, from monasteries and bishops and clerical vestments to holy relics and market-square crosses. They smashed stained-glass windows and saints' statues, ripped out choir stalls and roodscreens, and overturned altars. All these symbols of a centuries-old tradition of religious culture, which we would call great works of art, were for Knox marks of "idolatry" and "the synagogue of Satan," as he called the Roman Catholic Church. In any case, the idols disappeared from southern Scotland, and the Scottish Kirk rose up to take their place.
Knox and his lieutenants also imposed the new rules of the Calvinist Sabbath on Scottish society: no working (people could be arrested for plucking a chicken on Sunday), no dancing, and no playing of the pipes. Gambling, cardplaying, and the theater were banned. No one could move out of a parish without written permission of the minister. The Kirk wiped out all traditional forms of collective fun, such as Carnival, Maytime celebrations, mumming, and Passion plays. Fornication brought punishment and exile; adultery meant death. The church courts, or kirk-sessions, enforced the law with scourges, pillories, branks (a padlocked iron helmet that forced an iron plate into the mouth of a convicted liar or blasphemer), ducking-stools, banishment, and, in the case of witches or those possessed by the devil, burning at the stake.
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 congregation was the center of everything. It elected its own board of elders or presbyters; it even chose its minister. The congregation's board of elders, the consistory, cared for the poor and the sick; it fed and clothed the community's orphans. Girls who were too poor to have a dowry to tempt a prospective husband got one from the consistory. It was more than just fear of the ducking-stool or the stake that bound the Kirk together. It was a community united by its commitment to God and its sense of chosenness. "God loveth us," John Knox had written, "because we are His own handiwork."
To a large extent Knox's mission to create the New Jerusalem in Scotland succeeded. The Reformation laid down strong roots in the Scottish Lowlands, that belt of fertile land and river valleys running from the Firth of Clyde and Glasgow in the extreme west to just north of Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall across to Edinburgh and Berwick-on-Tweed in the east. North of this in the beautiful but barren and sparsely populated Highlands, its record was more spotty. But in all the areas that came under his influence, the Kirk created a new society in the image of Knox's utopian ideal. It had turned its back not only on Scotland's past, but on all purely secular values, no matter what the source. Knox made his view clear in one of his last letters before he died in November 1572. "All worldlie strength, yea even in things spiritual, decays, and yet shall never the work of God decay."
One of those pillars of "worldlie strength" that Knox despised was political authority, or more precisely the power of monarchs. Perhaps because Knox's closest allies were Scottish nobles who wanted to see the Scottish monarchy tamed, or because nearly every monarch he dealt with was either a child or a woman (the boy king Edward VI of England, Mary Queen of Scots, the Scottish Regent Mary of Guise, and English queens Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I), he treated them all with impatience and contempt. Yet neither Mary of Guise nor Mary Queen of Scots could do without him. Even though they were Catholics, Knox represented a spiritual authority they needed to legitimize their own. When Queen Mary announced her plans to marry her worthless cousin Lord Darnley, Knox gave her such a fierce public scolding that she burst into tears in full view of her court. She made the mistake of marrying Darnley anyway, and set in motion the series of scandals that would finally push her off the throne. By 1570, Knox recognized that Mary no longer had any part to play in making the New Jerusalem and he swept her aside, like a useless piece from the game board. Her infant son James VI was installed in her place, with George Buchanan, Scotland's leading humanist, as his tutor, so that the boy could be raised in the Presbyterian faith.
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."
Here was a vision of politics unlike any other at the time. George Buchanan turned it into a full-fledged doctrine of popular sovereignty, the first in Europe. Buchanan came from Stirlingshire in central Scotland, at a time when it was still much like the Highlands in its culture and character -- in fact, Buchanan grew up speaking both Gaelic and Scots. He studied at the University of St. Andrews and then at the University of Paris alongside other future giants of the Reformation such as John Calvin and Ignatius Loyola, the later founder of the Jesuits. As a Greek and Latin scholar, Buchanan had few peers. But he was also a founding father of Scottish Presbyterianism: he served as Moderator of the Kirk's General Assembly -- the only layman ever to do so -- and helped write the Kirk's First Book of Discipline. His greatest achievement, however, was his book on the nature of political authority, titled The Law of Government Among the Scots, published in 1579.
In it Buchanan asserted that all political authority ultimately belonged to the people, who came together to elect someone, whether a king or a body of magistrates, to manage their affairs. The people were always more powerful than the rulers they created; they were free to remove them at will. "The people," he explained, "have the right to confer the royal authority upon whomever they wish." This is the sort of view we are used to ascribing to John Locke; in fact, it belongs to a Presbyterian Scot from Stirlingshire writing more than a hundred years earlier. And Buchanan went further. When the ruler or rulers failed to act in the people's interest, Buchanan wrote, then each and every citizen, even "the lowest and meanest of men," had the sacred right and duty to resist that tyrant, even to the point of killing him.
Product details
- Publisher : Crown
- Publication date : September 24, 2002
- Edition : Reprint
- Language : English
- Print length : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0609809997
- ISBN-13 : 978-0609809990
- Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.18 x 1.01 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #25,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 inScotland History
- #34 inHistory of Civilization & Culture
- #63 inHistorical Study (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Arthur Herman is the bestselling author of Freedom’s Forge, How the Scots Invented the Modern World, The Idea of Decline in Western History, To Rule the Waves, and Gandhi & Churchill, which was a 2009 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Herman taught the Western Heritage Program at the Smithsonian’s Campus on the Mall, and he has been a professor of history at Georgetown University, The Catholic University of America, George Mason University, and The University of the South at Sewanee.
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4.6 out of 5 stars
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Customers find the book engaging and entertaining, with a compelling narrative that reads like an adventure story. Moreover, they appreciate its thorough information about the Scottish Enlightenment, and one customer notes it provides impeccable sources for its thesis. Additionally, the writing is well-crafted, and customers find it thought-provoking, with one review highlighting its profound effect on Western thought.
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135 customers mention readability, 117 positive, 18 negative
...While I admit it certainly appealed to my heritage, I found itvery interesting that what was arguably the poorest country in Europe could be the...Read more
How the Scots Invented the Moderen World was agreat read and a must read for everyone....Read more
Wow...what agood read! Never learned most of this information in college. Now I am wondering why.Read more
Interesting. I hadn't realized how much the Scottish thinkers of the 19th century influenced this country, its founders and eventually the world....Read more
89 customers mention information quality, 86 positive, 3 negative
Thoroughly enjoyed thiswell researched and historically poignant journey through the lifeblood of Scotland her peoples their triumphs and their...Read more
very interesting, andvery informative how much the Scots have influenced civilization from American Revolution to our culture today.Read more
Very interesting andinformative, my being of Scots descent. Slow reading at times, especially Adam Smith and morality and economics.Read more
Very interesting book. It's a good,informative read.Read more
73 customers mention history, 70 positive, 3 negative
Excellent historical reference for anyone interested in Scotland and its people. A bit dry in places but very lively n others....Read more
Great history readRead more
assuming it ishistorically correct it has an annoying style to as if the author feels the Scots are somewhat inferior and the world needs to know...Read more
...Both are academics in their own right and alsofully embrace their Scottish history and both completely love this book.Read more
39 customers mention writing quality, 35 positive, 4 negative
This is a very interesting book. It iswell written, and presented me with facts and some historical figures of whom I had not previously been...Read more
...It has suggested other lines of research. Also it a nice read,well-written I thought, for those of Scottish descent.Read more
...An erudite andwell-written history of our Scottish friends.Read more
An interesting story,well told....Read more
24 customers mention thought provoking, 22 positive, 2 negative
23 customers mention detail, 19 positive, 4 negative
very detailed and heavy on the philosophy of the Scottish enlightenment. I read this in spurts as it is too much to digest at one time. It...Read more
Amazing account and interpretation of the Scottish Enlightenment and how it influenced the birth of American and even the current economic and...Read more
No book has done such anexcellent job of explaining the manner in which many Scots and Scottish institutions have contributed to the excellence of...Read more
...of Scottish land and people; and then goes on to unfold, viaintriguing details, the Scot's influences on both the "Old World" of Europe, and the "...Read more
18 customers mention narrative quality, 18 positive, 0 negative
Aninteresting story, well told....Read more
Fascinating read. Well-written andfull of great stories and information.Read more
...It’s really anamazing story of a relatively small country and the people who came from it.Read more
...second book I have read by this author and he is a gifted writer andhistorian....Read more
15 customers mention enlightened, 11 positive, 4 negative
...Scholarly andentertaining at the same time. I bought another and sent it to my brother. I understand why this book was a best seller.Read more
A well-written,engaging, relevant, and enlightening review of very important history of civil progress....Read more
...I am down to reading 50 books per year. But thisbook is BORING!!! Its redundant and cover s too much irrelevant detail.Read more
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5 out of 5 stars
Superb history !
Arthur Herman’s Scottish history is an ideal read to prep for one’s trip to Scotland as it provides depth and scope to its long illustrious history, and, its moral, intellectual, economic and manufacturing contributions to the world. Herman is a superb, thorough historian, especially adept with Scottish intellectualism and its theorists of the so-called “Scottish Enlightenment” from Hutcheson to Hume to Smith. Though almost encyclopedic in form, his book meshes theory and explanation with vivid cameos of each of the numerous persons of the various ages from the beginning of the eighteenth century through the First World War. Herman’s description of the Scots and their special roles in the American Revolution and the subsequent settling of the United States and Canada is particularly revealing and informative. There are no maps, nor photographs.
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2023Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseAs I admitted when I gave this book to Mom, the tongue-in-cheek nature of the title had certainly piqued my curiosity enough that I was ready to buy it just from that. But, when I started to look into this book more, I found it to be no laughing matter. That it is 100% legitimate and extremely informative. Mom said it's a perfect reference guide because it cites so many sources in the back that it makes it easy for anybody wanting to know even more about anything to know where to look next. She just said it was hard to read straight through at times because, as I said, the book isn't a laughing matter and is packed with historical information; some of which may not be specifically of interest to you but would very much be of interest to others. It provides a great foundation ... and then also helps develop a roadmap for how to progress within the book itself ... and then where to jump off to other sources for more details. This thorough overview book helped explain a lot and make the various Clan-based history digests we also found make even more sense.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2004Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseThe sensations I have upon completing an exceptional book are very akin to the refreshment, exhilaration, and enlivenment that I feel after drinking a glass of ice water on a hot day. Those were the feelings I had after finishing How The Scots Invented The Modern World.
My feelings were the result of the remarkable way in which Herman organized and presented his work. Herman lays out his case in both chronological and subject order. The result of this organization is that the reader gets a true sense of how the Scottish Enlightenment's ideas not only grew from one thinker to another, but also how they moved across subject fields to create innovations in those areas as well. Herman also provides impeccable sources for his thesis, thereby giving credence to the theories he presents on the depth of Scottish contributions. Finally, he writes these theories and evidence in a way that is very accessible to the average reader. Even the chapters on philosophy, which had the potential for being very difficult, are presented in a comprehensible style. Because the concepts are depicted in an easy-to-understand manner, the reader can recognize the relevance of those ideas to modern life.
How The Scots Invented The Modern World should be required reading for college level history or philosophy classes. However, this is not a work that should be solely confined to the classroom. Any reader that finishes this book will find it impossible not to have an appreciation for the tremendous contributions that the Scots have made to the world. - Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2008Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseThis is a very well-organized book on the intellectual influence Scottish culture has had on the western world, most notably the United States and the United Kingdom. Despite the misleading title, this is not one of those "ethnic pride" books. Instead, Herman focuses on the specific intellectual achievements of specific, Scots and identifies that they were successful not because of some miraculous Scottish gene but because they were brilliant thinkers who were committed to scientific inquiry, productivity and sound morality.
In this book, you will learn about the Scottish Enlightenment. In particular, you will learn about how Scotland, prior to its enlightenment, was dominated by the Presbyterian Church (called the "Kirk"). At this time, the Kirk routinely executed blasphemers and promoted the world-view that man is an inherently sinful creature who can never truly redeem himself. Fortunately, a great thinker named Francis Hutcheson promoted the idea that men are generally moral creatures and shifted the focus of philosophical inquiry towards matters of concern to individuals living on earth (e.g., how men can be moral, how men can coexist in a society, etc.) as opposed to focusing on God, Church or Monarchy. Thus with Hutcheson, argues Herman, was the beginning of the Scottish Enlightenment.
In this book, you will also learn about many other great thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment. This includes Lord Kames, who wrote extensively on the importance of property and trade to allow societies to flourish. This also includes the pioneering economist Adam Smith, whose 'Wealth of Nations' became the first great work of capitalism.
The chapter on the great scientists and inventors of the Scottish Enlightenment is amazing. In this chapter you will learn about James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. Watt is a man who is so confident in his brilliance and productivity that he agreed to build an organ for a church before he knew anything about organs or music. However, Watt displayed that his confidence was indeed rational, as he learned everything he needed to know to successfully build the organ by the original deadline.
You will also learn about the "colossus of roads" Thomas Telford, whose prodigious accomplishments in the construction of roads, bridges, canals and dams gave England an interconnected transportation network, making it ripe for the British Industrial Revolution. You will also learn about John MacAdam, whose "macadamisation" process allowed for smooth, stable roads to be efficiently built and to replace the network of soil-based roads in England.
Herman does a great job in painting a great historical context. This is particularly good for readers who may not be too keen on their British history. In this book, you will learn about the political/religious monarchical disputes between the House of Hanover and the House of Stuart and the Scottish infatuation with exiled British throne claimant Bonnie Prince Charlie. You will also learn about the Act of Union, which originally created the United Kingdom, and how Scotland was motivated to support it during a crushing economic depression. Finally, you will learn good context of the 13th/14th century Wars of Scottish Independence, including brief overviews of the celebrated Scottish warriors such as William Wallace (Braveheart) and Robert the Bruce as well as the Scottish bitterness over the English capture of the Stone of Scone.
This book has a few shortcomings. The major flaw is overkill. Much of the most exciting information is diluted by being tossed into an ocean of less interesting stories. Moreover, Herman advances a few claims, which are not that convincing. For example, Herman argues that David Hume had an enormous influence on American revolutionary thinkers such as James Madison, when it seems more appropriate to credit British empiricist John Locke. Nevertheless, none of these questionable assertions are major linchpins of Herman's book.
Overall, a very good read! - Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2025Format: KindleVerified PurchaseThis is a first-rate book on the history, people, and culture of the Scottish. Although most of the Historical description starts at the beginning of the 18th century, it also touches on events going back at least to William Wallace in the late 1200s. The author devotes much attention to the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Adam Smith, Dougald Stewart and others of the Scottish school of moral philosophy and their influence on modern thought. But he goes way beyond that. To the Scottish diaspora, the Scotch-Irish in America, Scottish colonization of northern Ireland, the influence of progressive Scottish Presbyterians such as John Witherspoon at Princeton, Scottish inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell, and others. The narrative is coherent and vivid. It shows through many example around the world how the Scots have influenced our world for the better. Buy it! You'll love it.
Top reviews from other countries
- Bernard O'BrienReviewed in Australia on July 25, 2024
3.0 out of 5 starsTedious minute detail. In a word - Boring !
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseThis book went into a lot of minute detail particularly about early days of government and Parliament. My biggest problem was the small type in which the book was printed, and I gave up after about 50 pages. Given that a large part of the buying public for history books would probably be in their senior years and that we don't have 20/20 vision anymore, this fact simply added to the disappointment. Perhaps when books are described it should include the type size in which the book is published. It would certainly save some people a lot of money in the long term. Oh well, another book for the charity bookstall. - LORRAINE GAHAGANReviewed in Spain on January 9, 2026
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat read
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseGreat read. This was a gift for aScots friend. He loved it! - Eduardo VieiraReviewed in Brazil on April 23, 2021
5.0 out of 5 starsO Iluminismo Escocês e sua influência no mundo atual
Format: KindleVerified PurchaseCheguei nesse livro devido a uma pesquisa que fiz para escrever um artigo sobre a Escócia. Excelente surpresa. Eu não conhecia a história do Iluminismo Escocês ou, pelo menos, nunca tinha ligado os pontos. O livro conta a história da Escócia na era moderna e nos mostra como um país empobrecido perde sua soberania mas, ao mesmo tempo, dá a volta por cima e influencia todo o mundo moderno na forma que ele é hoje.
Altamente recomendado. - AbhiReviewed in India on January 27, 2025
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Read!
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseTitle is slightly misleading and a bit catchy to probably generate curiosity. That shouldn’t take away from a great piece of history written well with decent editing job! Must have in your bookshelf! - Amazon CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2023
5.0 out of 5 starsThe true unbiased history of principally Scotland's Academic prowess over the centuries.
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseUsed product for furthering my knowledge of Scotland's contribution to the world at large.
