| 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:  83 reviews
Sales Rank: 4513
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: Trade Paperback. / Three Rivers Press: 24 September, 2002; 472 pp / Condition: Very good condition., Stock#: 783265 (60-D) * * WE SHIP NEXT BUSINESS DAY * *
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| Customer Reviews:
 The scottish had a part too. October 17, 2005
2 out of 43 found this review helpful
This book is a lot about Scotland and there influence, and how the scots managed to do so much to help create the modern world.
A fun, narrow view of world history September 29, 2005
8 out of 14 found this review helpful
Herman's book is yet again another example of an ethnocentric world view. While the book is an easy read and serves to illuminate much of Scottish history to the general reader, on a whole, Herman's message is one that will slant your perspective of Scots in an overgeneralized and demeaning fashion. His treatment of the Highlanders as 'primitive' culture is truly a shame. I only recommend this book as a general introduction to an aware and highly objective reader.
Required reading August 26, 2005
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Yes there's a bit of hyperbole but if you're looking for an interesting, well written history on the contribution of Scotland to westernculture this is a very good book.
The Book doesn't really start until the act of union but it does a great job of covering some of the lesser known (at least to me)gem s of scottish history both good and bad. Yes it does "damn with faint praise" to use the words of another reviewer but isn't that the nature of truth. I think it shows how the scotts have succeded and contributed to the modern world in many cases in strife, acrimony and in spite of themselves.
I read this book just before my first trip to Scotland and it helped imensly in my enjoyment of the country and it's people.
Any history that shows all the hero's belonging to one nation, doing right all the time and overcoming tremendous odds everytime heroicly is a fairytale
 Compelling Story of the Greatest Scots August 21, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
While I do not agree with the rather presumptuous claim of the book's title, this book tells a compelling story of how the Scots put their mark in the modernization of the world in the period that Paul Johnson had characterized as "The Birth of the Modern."
In his book, Herman gave succinct interpretation of the thesis of Henry Home (Lord Kames), Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart, David Hume and other famous Scottish thinkers. And how their ideas influenced the transformation of Scotland, England, and later the rest of the world through the work of such legends as Witherspoon, Bell, Carnegie, Livingstone, ... Needless to say, the modern world is not the work of a mere handful of people, much less a mere handful of Scots. The Scots, however, were the right people at the right time to have exerted a dramatic impact, and in Herman's view, in far greater proportional representation than any other ethnic group.
Herman's story of the Scots placed a great emphasis on the positive side of the Scots' accomplishments. He also took pains to present, over and over again, the not so glamorous side of the affair - the tribal backwardness, the persistent poverty, the plight of those displaced by progress, the discontent of being subordinate to England, etc, etc. In the concluding chapter, especially, Herman proffered a critical assessment of the Scottish Enlightenment and the British Empire - that it is a force that has run its course, and modernization is exacting its price on that very society that had brought it to the world.
Some say that Herman is a white supremacist, and some say he has a bias so deep that he presented the Scots in a good light, even in their most dubious enterprises, such as the Opium War. A white man is no more a white supremacist when he writes about the achievements of white men than a black is a black supremacist when he writes about the achievements of black men. As to bias, we all have it, although we tend see more clearly that in others.
Herman, in connection with the work of David Livingstone, stipulated that cultural supremacy, as opposed to racial supremacy, was real and tangible and, although I might add, not necessarily permanent - a point of view that certainly did not endear him to the politically correct crowd. If anyone doubts that, he has quite simply not learned anything from history.
Harmless Historical Hyperbole August 3, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
OK, maybe the Scots didn't, as claimed in this terrific book's title, literally "invent" the modern world. But by the time you finish this highly readable account of the contributions they made, you will have to agree with Author Herman that they sure did more than their fair share! As evidence I offer my own realization while reading the book of how often I've come across the modifiers "a Scot" or "a Scotsman" in the course of descriptions of some notable historical figures and their contributions to the common weal. Guess I never noticed how frequently that occurred, and what it collectively meant, until reading Herman's concise but comprehensive description of the Scots' role in the shaping of their, and our, times. Don't let the fun title put you off; very much worth the read.
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