The Scottish Englightenment
Apr. 7th, 2011 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatI'm going to poke gentle fun at The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots' Invention of the Modern World by Arthur Herman so I feel I should start by saying that I actually think it is an excellent book. Having read a number of history textbooks on the Enlightenment period recently I think I can, hand-on-heart, say that from a layman's point of view this is the most accessible of the books which is attempting to push a distinct thesis, rather than simply providing an entertaining popular history narrative. I suspect, for the professional historian, it probably spends too many words rehashing the basic framework of history for the uninitiated: one wonders, for instance, if a blow-by-blow account of the '45 was really necessary when its aftermath is far more relevant to the argument than the events themselves. As a lay historian, however, I was grateful for its inclusion.
It must be said, however, that the book's argument is largely that the Scottish are responsible for pretty much everything that occurred between, more or less, the Act of Union and the death of Queen Victoria, except for the winning of the American War of Independence and the invention of the Department Store (these being allowed to the French). Voltaire, it would seem, once made a complementary mark about Adam Smith ('We have nothing to compare with him, and I am embarrassed for my compatriots'), thus settling the question entirely. In the preface Arthur Herman is anxious to assure the reader that he has no Scottish connections whatsoever and therefore brings an entirely unbiased eye to the proceedings (methinks he doth protest too much).
However, aside from this tendency to list inventions, movements and events and follow with "the Scots did that", the book is an impressive account of both Scottish and American history with a focus on the history of ideas, covering not just the Enlightenment but also the romantic and early industrial era. If you are prepared to be amused, rather than irritated, by the chauvinism then it is well worth reading.
It must be said, however, that the book's argument is largely that the Scottish are responsible for pretty much everything that occurred between, more or less, the Act of Union and the death of Queen Victoria, except for the winning of the American War of Independence and the invention of the Department Store (these being allowed to the French). Voltaire, it would seem, once made a complementary mark about Adam Smith ('We have nothing to compare with him, and I am embarrassed for my compatriots'), thus settling the question entirely. In the preface Arthur Herman is anxious to assure the reader that he has no Scottish connections whatsoever and therefore brings an entirely unbiased eye to the proceedings (methinks he doth protest too much).
However, aside from this tendency to list inventions, movements and events and follow with "the Scots did that", the book is an impressive account of both Scottish and American history with a focus on the history of ideas, covering not just the Enlightenment but also the romantic and early industrial era. If you are prepared to be amused, rather than irritated, by the chauvinism then it is well worth reading.