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This delightful book not only sparkles with insight and wit, it fills an important historical gap. It helps us understand better the sources of the Scottish Enlightenment and how that influenced not only the development of the British Empire, but the role it played in the American Revolution and in the Industrial Revolution everywhere.

You will find all kinds of colorful personalities. There is enough detail that unless you are a scholar of a particular person, you will likely learn something new. For example, even if you know David Hume was a Scotsman, how could you ever tell from his writing that he always spoke with a strong Scottish burr? And that is just a very minor point.

There is also the issue of the real kilt versus the standard Highland dress we know today that was dreamt up during the Regency period. But there is also the very real tragedy of the Clearances during the same time. When landlords realized they could make more money raising sheep than having people and farmers on their land paying rents they drove them off even if it meant burning them out. But that sent more people to America and into the British Army and thence to India and spread the culture around the globe.

It is true, however, that by the end you begin wondering if other cultures couldn't tell a similarly comprehensive tale because events are so complex and so many people are involved that you only need one of your team in there to claim the whole thing.

It is clear to me that the Scots were and are a remarkable people (my ancestry goes back that way, so I am biased), and there are singular achievements that are clearly theirs. But there comes a point where you have to draw the line and admit that you were simply one of the participants and not the single progenitor.

However, I recommend that you take a few hours and read this book. I believe you will find it a quite happy investment of your reading time.


Non-buff makes it all the way through a history book   August 9, 2003
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

My husband (a Scotsman) recommended this book to me (Scots by descent...370 years ago!). I don't usually read history unless it's written extremely well and is of great interest to me. In other words, almost never. I did find this book very interesting, but I admit it took me a few months of reading it in small chunks to make it through. Still, I made it to the end, which says something for the book.

I learned a little more about the history of thought and economics, and I found the section on Alexander Mackenzie particularly compelling. In the US, we learn that Lewis and Clark were the first white people to cross the land. Not quite true - Mackenzie crossed Canada before they crossed the US. This book sparked my interest in him, and today I'm online to buy his journals. (Not to diss Lewis and Clark - they're great heroes of mine, and Undaunted Courage was by far the best history book I've ever read.)

Among other things, How the Scots... made me more proud than ever to be Scottish. I think every English person ought to be required to read this book. :-)


The Scots are still to the fore.   July 8, 2003
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

whilst there is little doubt the Scots are unlikely to reach the heights of the 'Enlightenment' again, Arthur Herman has presented an unassailable case, that the Scots people have punched above their weight for centuries and will continue to do so. The facts are there, written down forever in the history books, and I disagree with the reviewer from Mill Valley, CA, who likens the Scots to the Greeks and asks where the Scots are now. They are still very much to the fore, but once you have created the modern world, where is there to go? except to remain at the forefront of all things, which the Scots are doing. Scots are still to the fore in all walks of life, politics, industry, business, science, medicine, etc. Look at the UK Government, Tony Blair is at least, half Scottish, and the majority of his cabinet are Scottish. Who cloned 'Dolly the Sheep'? Brother and Sister team Brian Soutar and Ann Gloag, operate one of the biggest business concerns in the world with their international bus company 'Stagecoach', which they built up from nothing. I could go on and on. Yes, Scots are still to the fore throughout the world, but as ever, they hide their light under a bushel, and it may take another few centuries until another Arthur Herman uncovers what they are up to at the moment. Well done Professor Herman, and more power to your elbow.


Got to love the Scots.   May 29, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is an excellent book. It makes an interesting case that the concentration of intellectual talent during the Scottish Enlightenment defies randomness.

From reading this book, I am also reminded what an intellectual giant Adam Smith is. I also found out Adam Smith was not so easy to read first hand. So, I had much more fun learning about Adam Smith in this book, than reading the few paragraphs I managed to read from "Wealth of Nations."

The one question is, where are the Scots today? I guess just where the Greeks are. Meaning a given group of people from a specific country or culture can have a spike of intellectual and innovative success during a short period of time. This is only to return to anonymity shortly thereafter. This inevitable cycle of cultures life does not detract at all from this very good book.


The Scots Enlightened the world   March 14, 2003
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

The book might be better titled 'The Scottish Enlightenment and its influences on the modern world.' It is divided into two sections, 'Epiphany' and 'Diaspora'. Few will need an introduction to notions of a Scottish diaspora, but 'epiphany' is an interesting twist on 'Enlightenment'. The conventional academic gloss on the Enlightenment focuses on French appeals to 'reason' culminating in Kant's categorical truths. The followers of Edmund Burke generally dismiss the 'French Enlightenment' as a corruption of the British Enlightenment which focused on 'compassion' rather than 'reason'.

Herman takes both to task for forgetting the evangelical sources of our modern world. Herman starts his story with crusty John Knox and his blend of revolutionary violence, predestination and universal literacy. Knox's reliance on the whirling dervish of 'revival meetings' and individual study of biblical sources provides Herman with all he needs to found the enlightened modern world in foggy Scotland. He is not shy about introducing Christian roots to what became an atheist philosophy. The transition from spiritual epiphany to materialist enlightenment might have been an interesting thread, but Herman avoids the issue. It is enough to boost the Scottish role and leave it at that.

Personally, I found this all a bit more intriguing than convincing. The leap from Knox (1505 - 1572) to Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746) required a detour from church history into British nationalism before emerging with a secular history of the Enlightenment. While I enjoyed getting a Scottish view of the 'English' civil war and detailed account of parliamentary debate over the Treaty of Union (1707), I was left wondering if the emphasis on Knox was merely Scottish boosterism, i.e. the Scots invented everything, so we need a 16th century Scot founder. . The genesis story is to short. All this takes place in the first 60 pages, one third of it devoted entirely to the Treaty of Union. To make a case for Hutcheson and Lord Kames inventing the 'Enlightenment', a bit more would be required regarding English and French developments.

Don't get me wrong, I really didn't mind the boosterism. The story moves pretty quickly. Just read it with a skeptical eye, as any Scot would advise you.

Others might say that the book is a much needed hurrah for the Lowland Scots. Given the 19th century's romantic obsession with the Highland clans, the Lowland Scots get ignored or labeled traitors. Herman enjoys debunking these delusions. The Highlanders are simply barbarian holdouts from the feudal age, the truly unenlightened. He gleefully recounts the adulteration of highland kilt into royal mini-skirt, and describes the rising of 1745 as little more than suicidal lunacy. Most tellingly, the highland clans are Lord Kames' model for 'primative man' and thus the model for later notions of 'hunter-gatherer' societies. The lowland Scots provide the heroic model of social elevation from 'hunter-gather' to 'farmer' to 'merchant' to 'enlightened'.

I enjoyed the way Herman connects Knox to Hutcheson, then Hutcheson to Hume, Witherspoon and the American revolution. It is a good story and fine corrective to the conventional emphasis on continental philosophy. The story of Sir Walter Scott would have made a good ending, but Herman presses on with an unnecessary history (but mercifully short) of steam engines, public health and any Scot that made a bundle of cash.