Scotland: Read Before You Go {Non-Fiction}

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

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Scotland is a country with a long, sordid history. Perhaps its struggles match the dueling nature of its own environment: grandeur and beauty mixed with its hard-scrabble northern world. There were two non-fiction books I read before traveling to Scotland for our 10-day road trip that set the backdrop and provided context that made our trip more meaningful. Neither are quick reads, but both are truly worthwhile reads for those wanting to better understand this country that has long labored to define itself.

Scotland: The Story of a Nation by Magnus Magnusson

(click the image above to purchase the book through Amazon)

692 pages (excluding appendix, sources, and index, which take it to 734 pages), published in 2000

YOU MAY ENJOY THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE:

European/United Kingdom history * Political history * Cultural and literary history * Military history * History of Monarchies

about the author: magnus magnusson

Magnus Mangusson was, surprisingly, born in Iceland in 1929, but he spent the majority of his life living in Scotland. His father’s work for the government took the family to Edinburgh when Magnus was young and professionally he became a respected journalist and writer, working for the BBC. When Scottish National Heritage began in 1992, he became the first chairman of the group, which advises the Scottish government on matters related to culture, national parks, and other important Scottish sites. The first-hand knowledge he had about so much of the country is evident throughout this book where he had personal, intimate knowledge of many of the important historic sites. Magnus Magnusson published many books focused predominantly on the Vikings, Iceland, and Scotland, before his death in 2007 at the age of 77. His expertise as a researcher and creative thinker is evident in how he presented the story of Scotland in this book.

REVIEW OF Scotland: The story of a nation BY Magnus magnusson:

Scotland: The Story of a Nation is a comprehensive overview of Scottish history from the earliest origins of its geological formation up to the late 1990s. I’ve read this book twice - once years ago out of an interest in the country that produced some of my own ancestors - and then this year to coincide with our trip to Scotland.

Nestled within these pages is a chronologically told tale of political, religious, and cultural struggles that has shaped the national identity of Scotland through the ages. For those wishing to learn more about a particular era, it’s possible to skip around in the book to focus in on, say, Mary Queen of Scots. That said, I think the book does build upon itself nicely and so my primary recommendation would be to read it straight through.

Adding to the account, the author intersperses pieces of Sir Walter Scott’s Tales of a Grandfather, a book that he wrote around 1830 to encapsulate Scottish history to that point. Sir Walter Scott was in many ways the preeminent maker of what is thought of as Scottish history and culture, playing a significant national role during his life to define, embrace, and herald his somewhat fictionalized, somewhat romanticized version of Scotland as the country sought to reemerge from the troubles that surrounded the Highland Clearances.

This book is dense but still readable and does an efficient job of packing a lot of history into its pages. Reading this before our trip to Scotland made our visit to many sights much more meaningful with this context, and I would recommend it as a reading for anyone interested in the country’s history.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything In It: by Arthur Herman

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429 pages (excluding appendix, sources, and index, which take it to 472 pages), published in 2001

YOU MAY ENJOY THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE:

European/United Kingdom history * Political, Economic, Philosophical, Relgious and Social history

about the author: arthur herman

Arthur Herman has a Ph.D. in history and classics from Johns Hopkins University, has been a professor, and is currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. In addition to this one, he has published nine other books spanning topics from Western Civilization to biographies on political and military figures.

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 BY arthur herman:

I have to admit that I was dubious but intrigued by the title of How the Scots Invented the Modern World because of its hyperbolic position: How could Scotland, a tiny northern nation really have created our modern world? Would this New York Times bestseller really make a convincing case?

I learned a substantial amount of information on Scotland in this book that I had never learned before and which provided a really nice balance as a companion book to Scotland: The Story of a Nation. Perhaps most importantly, Scotland has valued education to the extent that the best families in London sent their children to Scotland to study in the centuries past. From that epicenter of thought came some of the great thinkers that have shaped our modern world. Case in point: Scot Adam Smith, known most famously for his book The Wealth of Nations, is foundational to classical economics.

The topics in this book cover a wide array of Scottish history and its impacts within its country, neighboring England, and much further as the Scots gradually spread around the globe through emigration.

The book is both fascinating and engaging as it spins a web of Scottish impact across varied fields, and I highly recommend it as a read for anyone interested in understanding Scotland and the Scottish diaspora in general and definitely as a read for anyone planning a trip to Scotland.

So, did it live up to its title? I can say that it did a far better job than I expected it to!

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