Scotland: The Global History, 1603 to the Present

BY MURRAY PITTOCK

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

£25

★★★★

This is a tome with a dizzyingly panoramic range, starting with the 30 Years War in 1618, and ending up with the cultural significance of John Byrne’s 1980s TV drama Tutti Frutti, and the current constitutional state of play. Pittock, a professor at the University of Glasgow and one of Scotland’s leading cultural historians, is an extraordinary polymath whose ability to effortlessly cover a vast subject area in this remarkable work is breathtaking. Pittock seeks to understand Scotland’s huge impact in an era during which it has largely existed within the United Kingdom. He concludes that a key reason for that pre-eminence was a remarkable education system. This not only led to a ferment of ideas which gifted the world everything from technical innovations to its banking system (the dullest bit of the book is its start, where he lists these achievements), but which produced ambitious young Scots with the confidence and skills to run the Empire. Another key factor in the Scottish success story is a clannish clubability and ability to network, which ensured that key Empire possessions – India, West Indies and Hong Kong, for example – were effectively run by the Scots. Pittock’s subject matter is not new, but his scope is vast and he writes with a verve and panache that rivals anything that has gone before. He also shines a light on some fascinating but lesser known nuggets (I particularly enjoyed the passages on the 17th and 18th century activities of Jacobite exiles in Europe). As a nationalist, he can’t quite avoid glorying in Scottish accomplishments, even though he explicitly sets out to avoid ‘the crude jingoism of exceptionalism’. Yet Scottish achievements speak for themselves, and whether placed in a global or British context, the country has punched way above its weight. This 500-page doorstopper is a big old read, but it’s a valuable addition to the canon that rewards the open-minded reader. (RB)

‘Pittock’s subject matter is not new, but his scope is vast and he writes with a verve that rivals any previous history of Scottish achievements’