Customer Reviews:
 A Book for All Nations May 19, 2002
As a Scotsman who has now lived nearly half his life outside of Scotland I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This was enhanced by the prominence in the story of my home town of Edinburgh. I can however recommend the book to people of any nationality as a very interesting read. Before starting it I feared the worst: that the disproportionately large role of the Scots in many aspects of the world's development in the past few hundred years would be put down to something in the air or the porridge. Instead a very strong case is made that much was due to the accidental confluence of human dynamics. Changing attitudes to religion, the opportunities given by the union with England in 1707 and the long time prevalence of education in Scotland even for the poorest, led to a questioning of what motivates people. The answer was that it was essentially self interest, that your life was what you made of it and that was how you should be judged. Everyone therefore started out as good as anyone else. Especially fascinating is the role of Scots and this line of thought in the formation of America, which was founded on a set of beliefs which sound very similar.
I wish I were a Scotsman. May 4, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A Revelation of Stunning Proportions! Once again I have "warmed myself at fires I did not build." What I found most profound was the bedrock of Scottish Values that poured into the American Dream. I wish I were a Scotsman.
 Though of Scottish heritage, I suppose I am a clod.... April 11, 2002
Others have praised the "easy reading" of this book, but I found it quite difficult due to the heavy practice of placing what should be foot notes into the text. Outside of that small criticism, the material was enlightening, quite well researched, and presented in an engaging manner. I question the self serving title, but it served to get me to buy the book. Marketing is King. I found reference to several items I discovered in the National Museum in Glasgow where various papers are posted that were discussed in the pubs and meeting places of gathering philosophers from all over Europe during the 18th century when Glasgow and Edinburgh were "think tanks" of Europe. You would be amazed at the wording of many passages we find in the American Declaraton of Independence and Constitution. It seems plagiarism was popular then as well.
Makes me think April 1, 2002
I have a Scottish last name and have always been interested in the history of Scotland. This book is easy to read on difficult subjects like Adam Smith. It really made me think about whether Capitalism is the driving force of the world. If people have enough material things do they conform. In the US with lot's of different kinds of people that seems to be the case. It also appears that even the worst off in the US has a TV and is probably better off than the best off in sub-Sahara Africa. I don't want to argue who is happier. I also was interested that Lowland Scots were Presbyterian and English Episcopalian. I loved the reference to English as high-browed. I still see the British as Stogy to the point of their own downfall. My last name is a Highlander name so now I wonder if we came after the 45. Anyway I'm not finished with this yet but really enjoyed it..
The Power of the Scottish Enlightenment March 18, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The value of this book lies in Herman's description of the origins, development, and practical consequences of the Scottish Enlightenment. Throughout my many years in academia, the French Enlightenment received significantly more attention than did the Scottish Enlightenment. Herman points out that Diderot's Encyclopedia is now a historical relic, whereas the Encyclopedia Britannica is a world-renowned standard. More importantly, Scottish thinkers gave us a functional democracy and an understanding of the system of natural liberty (i.e. market economics). Meanwhile, Rousseau and the French Revolution were the ancestors of the 100 million Marxist murders of the 20th century. Herman persuades me that the Scottish Enlightenment is in a league with Periclean Athens and Renaissance Italy in terms of the extent of originality, scale of the consequences, and the degree of benefit to human well-being. After reading Herman, the French Enlightenment seems largely a matter of self-important blather by comparison. Voltaire is obviously not in the same league as Hume.Scottish Enlightenment thinkers continue to be models of clear, rational thought even today. Superb reasoning powers combined with a practical bent, always rare among intellectuals, resulted in extraordinary impact. I have long been a fan of Joseph Black for his incisive reasoning; I had not known that James Watt was his friend and student, and brought to bear Black's habits of mind to the practical development of steam power. Madison's Federalist X is among the most important of U.S. founding documents; it was great to learn of the extent of Hume's influence on Madison. I had also not known of the direct human transmission of ideas from Adam Smith to Dugald Stewart to the Scottish legislators, journalists, and polemicists who created British classical liberalism in the 19th century. A similar combination of distinctive intellectual and practical traits formed the British empire (which is treated with appropriate appreciation herein). Add in Dr. Samuel Smiles' creation of the "Self-Help" genre, Andrew Carnegie's life, James Mill and John Stuart Mill, and dozens of influential but less well-known theorists, writers, engineers, businessmen, etc. and Herman convinces that specific Scottish intellectual and moral traits also led to the pervasive construction of lesser modern institutions from asphalt to Australian sheep farming. The fact that that a small group of Scottish thinkers in close contact with one another developed the intellectual and practical foundations of modernity is astounding. Moreover, in large measure their efforts were intentional: they were deliberately setting out to understand and improve the world by means of rationality, and succeeded in doing so beyond anyone's wildest fantasies. As with Periclean Athens and Renaissance Italy, it is striking that the Scottish Enlightenment consisted of a brief burst of extraordinary creation followed by a decline into ordinariness. The latter part of the book consequently degenerates into catalogs of Scottish individuals; of interest to those of Scottish ancestry, but not of the same importance as the effects of the Scottish Enlightenment. The real interest of this book lies not in its flattery of Scottish peoples, but in its charting of an amazing cultural meme that spawned many of the most successful and positive aspects of contemporary life. May reason once again prevail.
|
