Highlanders - by James MacKillop (Paperback)

About the Book

"Rebellion was recurrent in the Highlands because the Gaels (Scoti) were an often-oppressed indigenous minority in the nation, Scotland, to which they gave their name. They spoke a language, Gaelic, few outsiders would learn, and had their own family and social system, the clans. Warfare was bloody, culminating in the catastrophe of Culloden Moor during the doomed quest to restore the Stuart kingship to all of Britain. Economic hardship, including the near-genocidal Clearances, in which tenant farmers were replaced with sheep, drove the Gaels from the glens and islands, so that most today live in the diaspora, including millions in North America. Although the Gaels lack a single genetic identity, they clearly draw from distinct roots in the Irish, Norse and Picts. Despite their hardship, the Gaels are also presented in romantic portrayals by the artistic elite of other nations. This book offers ways in which the reader might find roots and ancestry in unfamiliar terrain. Chapters discuss the landscape and language of the Highlanders, the rise of clans, feuds and invasions, and eventual emigration."--

Book Synopsis

Rebellion was recurrent in the Highlands because the Gaels (Scoti) were an often-oppressed indigenous minority in the nation, Scotland, to which they gave their name. They spoke a language, Gaelic, few outsiders would learn, and had their own family and social system, the clans. Warfare was bloody, culminating in the catastrophe of Culloden Moor during the doomed quest to restore the Stuart kingship to all of Britain. Economic hardship, including the near-genocidal Clearances, in which tenant farmers were replaced with sheep, drove the Gaels from the glens and islands, so that most today live in the diaspora, including millions in North America. Although the Gaels lack a single genetic identity, they clearly draw from distinct roots in the Irish, Norse and Picts. Despite their hardship, the Gaels are also presented in romantic portrayals by the artistic elite of other nations. This book offers ways in which the reader might find roots and ancestry in unfamiliar terrain. Chapters discuss the landscape and language of the Highlanders, the rise of clans, feuds and invasions, and eventual emigration.

Review Quotes

"Highland history is so remote from us that when persons emerge from the mist they look like ciphers in a folktale. MacKillop seizes these names for us, like Somerled the founder of dynasties, Colkitto the warrior, and the several Lords of the Isles, and puts flesh on them. They made noise and affected lives. So too with Gaelic poets usually known by their nicknames, Rob Donn or Iain Lom. Their verses were memorized and recited for generations."-Donna Woolfolk Cross, author of Pope Joan

"The author has scoured hundreds of arcane tomes and dozens of hard-to-reach archives to fill out a compelling, detailed nuanced story of a marginalized and frequently misrepresented people. But he wears his learning lightly. The reader is thankful that he often takes into account popular perceptions and mis-perceptions. Like cleaning up the distortions of history to be found in Mel Gibson's Braveheart."-Douglas Brode, author of Shakespeare in the Movies

"To plumb the identity an elusive ethnicity with mixed antecedents, the author burrows through a dozen layers of relationships between the Highlands and Ireland. They begin with shared ancient artifacts that predate the arrival of Celtic languages. The Scottish Gaelic and Irish languages both derive from Old Irish despite many distinct differences. Citations of links to Ireland appear all though Highlanders because the story cannot be told without knowing the Irish contributions."-Maureen O'Rourke Murphy, past-president, American Conference for Irish Studies

About the Author

James MacKillop is an American Celtic scholar, arts journalist and academic living in Jamesville, New York.