Customer Reviews:
 How the Scots Invented the Modern World August 6, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Scots here get all the credit, for everything from humanistic philosophy to capitalism to the steam engine to Agent 007. If enough Scots read this paean to their ancestors, Herman (History/George Mason Univ.; Joseph McCarthy, 1999, etc.) may one day have his visage carved into a Scottish Mt. McRushmore. Herman begins in the nasty 17th century and guides us with swift intelligence and admirable command of his sources through some complicated history: the National Covenant (1638), the Stuarts, Cromwell (whose singular virtue, Herman notes, is that he was hated by everyone in the British Isles). Soon we are in the 18th century, and the Act of Union, which, as Herman observes, confounded its critics by propelling the Scottish economy into astonishing prosperity. Herman reminds us of all the great men (yes, mostly men) who were Scots, including Francis Hutcheson (an early opponent of slavery and advocate of women's rights), James Boswell, David Hume, Adam Smith (the first compassionate conservative?), Edward Gibbon . . . well, maybe he doesn't quite qualify, but, says Herman (reaching, reaching), "for all intents and purposes, he was intellectually a Scot." Herman explains the apparent oxymoron "Scotch Irish," displays the Scottish origins of "redneck" and "cracker," and points out that half the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Scots (or of Scottish ancestry). Scots created the modern literary journal (Edinburgh Review), historical fiction (Sir Walter Scott's Waverly), and pavement (John MacAdam's "macadamized" road). Scots also invented modern medical practices, ruled sweetly in the far reaches of the British Empire, peopled Canada and Australia with sturdy stock, and sent medicine and Jesus to Africa in the person of Dr. Livingstone (I presume). Notable Americans like Daniel Boone, Jim Bowie, Sam Houston, and Kit Carson had roots in Scotland, as did Andrew Carnegie, who built railroads, steel mills, and libraries.
A Must Read July 11, 2002
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The Scotland of William Wallace is not the Scotland that Arthur Herman celebrates in "How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything In It." To the contrary, Scotland's triumphant moment came four centuries after Braveheart's death, according to Herman, when Scotland welcomed--not threw off--the English. "In the span of a single generation it would transform Scotland from a Third World country into a modern society and open up a cultural and social revolution," Herman asserts. "Far from finding themselves slaves to the English, as opponents had prophesied, Scots experienced an unprecedented freedom and mobility." While its title intentionally embraces the Scottish tradition of boasting and exaggerating, "How the Scots Invented the Modern World" makes a strong case that the Scots, more than any other people, are responsible for the world after the Enlightenment. What followed unification was not merely a Scottish renaissance, but a revolution in thought that changed the world. Adam Smith, David Hume, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Boswell, Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, Sir Walter Scott, and George Buchanan are among the Scots Herman discusses. Perfecting the steam engine, introducing inoculation to fight smallpox, inventing street lamps, devising the system of time zones, and discovering the simple method to prevent scurvy were all products of the Scottish imagination. "How the Scots Invented the Modern World" tells an untold story with wit and eloquence. This provocative book will gain the interest of Scots and non-Scots alike who are left to wonder how a small group living in the shadow of their southern neighbors had such a positive impact upon the world in which we live.
An outstanding overview of the Scottish Enlightenment July 8, 2002
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I can't say enough good things about this book. It is an extremely well-written and well-researched history of Scotland following the unification with England in 1707, built around the contributions Scots have made to the modern world. Filled with historical detail, it still manages to be easily readable and there is scarcely a dull paragraph in the entire work.The author provides a window through which the reader can peer into the fascinating world of mid-18th Century Scotland and the people who inhabited it. Adam Smith, David Hume, Lord Kames, James Watt and other crucial figures to Western history walk through these pages. Not only is this work informative, but it is wonderfully entertaining- exactly what popular history should be. This book fills what had been a missing gap in popular history. I urge you to read it.
 Convincing story--too many mistakes June 18, 2002
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I come at this review as the author of a recent book on the piety of John Witherspoon and a specialist in 18th century Scotland. Herman's book is a sweeping account of the great story of what the small country of Scotland did to help make the modern world. Book is badly need and should be much appreciated. However, Herman is a sloppy historian, sad to say. Items:Page 85, he has the wrong date (1759)for Wm. Robertson's HISTORY OF THE REIGN.... It should be 1769.
Page 161, he tries to explain how a person could travel by coach from Glasgow to Edinburgh, have a visit there, and then return in the space of two days. Yet in the same paragraph he explains that the actual coach trip each way took a day and a half. Page 205, he states that William [sic] Alison was the head of the Old Siders. Wrong. It was Francis Alison, not William.
Page 209, he writes, "Witherspoon published his first words of support for the American cause in 1771. Three years later...he composed his THOUGHTS ON AMERICAN LIBERTY." There is no source cited for the 1771 date, nor for other such assertions that Herman makes throughout his book. I and Witherspoon's biographer (Collins) recognize that Witherspoon's THOUGHTS... offer the first documented evidence of his transformation into an American. Page 318, the new section is numbered III. It should be IV. Number III is on p. 313. Page 340, Herman has Fort Pitt on the Susquehanna River. Wrong. Fort Pitt was at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, which flow into the Ohio. These are the errors which I picked up on a first rapid reading of the book. I truly hope there are not others.
A Wonderful Tribute to the Scots June 12, 2002
I thought this was a marvelously well researched work. Growing up largely in northern Scotland I was not raised with a wide sweeping sense of Scottish history, such as the accompishments of various Scottish descendants in North America and Australia. Mr. Herman has really carved a good track here, in the spirit of Cahill's How the Irish Saved Civilization. Great Sunday afternoon reading.
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