| 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:
 You Don't Have To be a Scot-o-phile To Enjoy This Book! January 31, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
You do need to be a lover of modern history, though, and if you are you will be amazed at the influence the Scots have had.
This book is very well written, and draws on a wealth of Scots characters who are engaging and fascinating for their influence on every facet of Modern Western society. The author's style, though clearly based on scholarly research, is very accesible and entertaining. I found the section dealing with the Scots influence on the American Revolution full of characters and events that were key elements in David McCullough's "John Adams" and I found the author's style very similar to McCullough's - a positive endorsement in my opinion since I find McCullough the absolute best of modern historical biographers!
Certainly doesn't understate the influence of Scots January 20, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm not sure how Scottish "Ulster Scots" are or Scots from Australia, but this book rightly points out that people of Scottish descent have made significant contributions to modern civilization that are well beyond the size of Scotland.
Most interesting for me in this book was discussion of the "Scottish Enlightenment", highlighting people such as Hutcheson, Hume, Adam Smith and others. People who use Smith to justify unimpeded laissez faire "survival of the fittest" philosophies would be well served by seeing Smith in his proper perspective.
On some fronts, I didn't know whether some claims were accurate such as the southern term for "rednecks" and others. But on whole, I enjoyed the book and it has made me want to read additional information on Scotland.
I welcome feedback on this and all reviews at wstrnlibwarrior@yahoo.com
 Get Scotland's Empire instead! January 14, 2005
10 out of 28 found this review helpful
What a load of reductive cr*p! Buy Get Scotland's Empire by T. M. Devine instead!
Good summary of the Scottish Enlightenment and its results. November 26, 2004
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Despite its annoying title, "How the Scots Invented the Modern World" is an enjoyable book and a good summary of the Scottish Enlightenment. Its author, Arthur Herman, doesn't make the case that the Scotch "invented the modern world" any more than several other nations can claim to have "invented the modern world," but Herman also doesn't truly attempt to argue such a case either, to his credit. Instead, he gives a good summary of Scotland's history and the contributions that many Scotch and people of Scottish descent have made to human progress.
At the beginning of the book, Herman gives a quick but sufficient summary of Scotland's pre-Enlightenment history, focusing primarily on its union with England to form Great Britain in 1707 and the Jacobite revolt of 1745, the unsuccessful attempt by France, in cooperation with Highland Scots, to restore the Stuart dynasty to the English throne. With the solidification of the British union after the "Forty-five," Scotland truly began to make its monumental contributions to science, economics, medicine, philosophy, commerce, and numerous other fields at the foundation of modern Western culture.
One area where Herman should have expanded his focus is on the extent that Scottish Presbyterianism laid the groundwork for the Scottish Enlightenment. While Herman does note that the Enlightenment in Scotland differed from the Enlightenment in France in that the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment saw progress and Christianity as completely compatible, if not necessary, he fails to look at why the Calvinist philosophy prevalent in 18th Century Scotland (and therefore, much of 18th Century North America) would encourage an environment so friendly to human progress. Despite what Herman seems to believe, the Scottish Enlightenment did not happen in spite of the Calvinist Presbyterian culture from which it came but largely because of it.
In the final chapters of his book, Herman tells the stories of 19th Century Scotch migrations to America, Australia, India, Africa, and several other areas where the Scottish Enlightenment would leave its imprint. It's in these chapters that the book's title seems less the obvious exaggeration that it is. Thanks to these migrations, the teachings and discoveries of Adam Smith, David Hume, Francis Hutcheson and the other notables of the Scottish Enlightenment eventually did have a monumental impact on many of the most powerful nations in the world today.
A history which crosses academic boundaries. November 19, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
While Herman is faithful to his theme, too faithful as I will explain, I view his work as a really fine history book, one written across academic boundaries: it covers the political, economic, social, intellectual, literary and architectural history of Scotland, focusing on the 18th century. It is written largely in terms of personalities; while at times the reader may get overwhelmed by a parade of characters, this is relatively infrequent. Instead, Herman always focuses on those elements of a person's background and accomplishment which reflect his society and contributed to it. Edinburgh in the 18th century reminds one of Athens in the 5th century BC., with all these intellectual greats knowing each other well, and all benefiting from and creating new ways of looking at the world. Sometime in the 19th century, Scotland went into decline. While Herman is very talented at briefly capturing the essence of social or economic changes, he has very little to say about the causes of this decline: it is almost as if it does not square with his themes. In the beginning of the book, Herman left my head swimming with his too short a discussion of earlier Scotch history, but maybe he assumed more knowledge on the reader's part than I had. In any event, after using the term Jacobite numerous times, he finally explains it on p.114 (hint, it has nothing to do with the Jacobins of the French revolution).
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