Review of How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It (Paperback)

Some of his more dour Scottish readers may very well tell Arthur Herman that he's mixing in a little bit of nonsense here. HOW THE SCOTS INVENTED THE MODERN WORLD is a glowing tribute to the Scots but he does go over the top a bit in giving them credit for more than they actually achieved, and also more than the Scot's ever claimed for themselves.

This book however is a serious study of Scotland in the 18th century, particularly the period following the Act of Union with England in 1707 known as the Scottish Enlightenment. THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT is actually the book's UK title but that doesn't mean too much to us here. Far more eye-catching and interesting sounding is the title used for the US edition. This however creates a problem for the author. Its pop-culture sounding theme gives the impression that we will be engaged in competitive national chest-beating such as HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION and comparing lists of who accomplished what as in SPREZZATURA: 50 WAYS ITALIAN GENIUS SHAPED THE WORLD. Here the Scots supposedly not only CREATED OUR WORLD [but also] EVERYTHING IN IT!. Such claims don't allow the book to be taken very seriously but that is exactly how Herman wants it to be read. It's therefore a credit to him that his presentation of the facts and his arguments are good enough to allow him to make his point.

If we were to compile lists, one that would show Scottish prowess would be that of great thinkers of the 18th century. Start with Adam Smith, David Hume, Walter Scott, James Watt and Lord Kelvin.There is also John Stuart Mill. Those who were less thinkers and inventors but doers were David Livingstone and Scottish-Americans such as John Muir and Andrew Carnegie. It is the presence of transplanted Scots like Carnegie which underlies one of the authors main points. They are the "true inventors" of "modernity" because theycarried their beliefs with them as they settled around the world. Thus the roots of the Western traditions of individualism, democracy, and capitalism can all be traced back to Scotland.

It's an interesting argument carried off with much bravado and assured writing on the part of the author. To the extent that he stays away from the stereotypes such as the thrifty, penny-pinching Scot we can be thankful. This is a guid book and as a bairn of the Campbell's of Argyll on my mother's side I am pleased that this book has helped me ken a lot more about Scotland.



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Review of A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (Paperback)

Who is Enguerrand de Coucy and why should we care?

Coucy was a French noble whose life and position intertwined neatly with many of the momentous events that defined the 14th Century.He appears, Zelig-like, at the head of armies, at the elbow of both the Kings of France and England and in the great councils of state that determined the actions of a nascent French nation.

His story is remarkable and remarkably well documented.His life and actions serve as the central thread that ties the events surrounding the Hundred Year's War between England and France together in this marvelous book.

Tuchman displays this late Middle Age period in all of its nasty burtality.The Great Plague hit in several waves, reducing Europe's population by between one half and one third.A century of warfare left roving bands of knights and armed men loose in the countryside to pillage and destroy between summons to fight for king and country.The common man and woman, evolving from a status of near slavery to severe oppression, owed service to their lord and taxes to almost everyone.

Tuchman brilliantly weaves the above facts of life with the politics and struggles between rival nobles, kingdoms and a corrupt church.This book is very well written, as I had always heard Tuchman's works to be.She possesses the rare ability to write solid history -- this book is fact filled, and thoroughly documented -- in the manner of a great storyteller.Her characters and events, leavened by Tuchman's wry observations and logical conclusioins, are marvelously developed.

So much happened in this time period that it does bear scrutiny.Chivalry, the code of the Knight that was suppossed to benefit people in exchange for a life free from common worries, had denegrated into a corrupt facade that shielded ruthless brigands from law and sanction.The great Church, long the common denominator among disparate peoples became first hopelessly corrupt then divided for decades by rival popes more interested in Europe's balance of power among earthly kingdoms than in promoting the Kingdom to whom they suppossedly gave vasselage.Great landed nobility struggled with each other and began a transformation from nearly autonomous players in an ever changing system of alliances across nationalities to becomming the building blocks of the infant state.Policy and war rose and fell on the ability, whim and maturity of changing kings.

Although our own recently passed Twentieth Century could witness evil and bloodletting on a more sustained and organized basis than any that preceeded it -- hence the title "Through a Distant Mirror," Tuchman's work also illustrates how far society has come in those parts of the world where it is civil and grounded in natural rights.Thus, Tuchman's book shows both the constant danger through time of man's darker side as well as the progress earned by those who have managed to diffuse power and ground everyday people with a voice in their affairs and rights that can not be abrogated.

This is a marvelous work from every facet.I am now ordering other Tuchman books to see how she handles man's affairs in centuries distant from that enjoyed by Enguerrand de Coucy.



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