| How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It | 
 enlarge | Author: Arthur Herman
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  78 reviews
Sales Rank: 13998
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0609809997
Dewey Decimal Number: 941.1
EAN: 9780609809990
ASIN: 0609809997
Publication Date: September 24, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Very light shelf wear on paperback cover. Otherwise, shows no sign of use. All proceeds benefit local libraries.
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| Customer Reviews:
 It is True! August 6, 2008
You may see how the ecclesiastical and civil trials of Scotland generated the people and their methods for all fields of endeavor in Western Society.
A Couple of Problems June 1, 2008
Herman's How the Scots Invented the Modern World is enjoyable and emphasizes the great Enlightenment vision that tried to understand human nature.
This is not a review, however, but a comment on two problems with the text that were not "fixed" in the paperback edition.
1) Harriet Martineau was not the wife of John Stuart Mill; his wife was also named Harriet but Martineau was a minor but important writer on her own.
2) Jonathan Edwards was preceded by Aaron Burr, Sr. as president of Harvard, not followed by him. Indeed, the chaos in the family from the deaths of his parents and of his gtandfather as well were a part of the first years of the more famous Aaron Burr's life.
I'm not a historian; I can see how these could easily happen. Nonetheless, much as I am enjoying the book, slips like these (kept into later editions) indicate Herman would profit from more fact-checking and a sharper editor.
How the Scots Invented the Modern World March 28, 2008
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
This is a detailed look at the role the Scots have played in the developement of the modern world in the 18th and 19th Centuries from the highlands of their own country to the distant corners of the New World and Asia.
The title's statement about how they 'Created Our World & Everything In It' led me to figure that this book would be strongly biased, but I bought it anyway and found that it is not; the author was deliberately exaggerating and presents a relatively balanced view of Scottish history. There are few strong anti-English sentiments in this book, and none of the 'Braveheart'-style stereotype that this period in Scottish history (the Jacobite Rebellions) is prone to attracting. More than anything it is about the Scottish Enlightenment, the cultural centers that arose at Edinburgh and especially Glasglow following the '45, and the individual Scots that strongly influenced modern politics, finances, religion, and philosophy.
Overall, I liked this book (though it was a tad bit dry) and found it much more fair and balanced than most other titles on this topic.
Well researched if a bit dry February 28, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Very good book, reads a bit like a college textbook. I learned quite a bit.
A valuable history lesson and food for thought October 11, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An amazing revelation of a small country's enormous contributions to freedom and knowledge with special relationship to the founding of our country. Negative, condescending stereotypes are exploded.
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