Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland - by James Coleman (Paperback)

About the Book

At a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland's national heroes were once remembered as champions of both Scottish and British patriotism.

Book Synopsis

At a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland's national heroes were once remembered as champions of both Scottish and British patriotism.
Whereas current, popular orthodoxy claims that 19th-century Scotland was a mire of sentimental Jacobitism and kow-towing unionism, this book shows that Scotland's national heroes embodied a consistent, expressive and robust view of Scottish nationality. From the potent legacy of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, through the controversial figure of the reformer, John Knox, to the largely neglected religious radicals, the Covenanters, these heroes once played a vital role in the formation of the virtues that made 19th-century Britain great.
Examined through the prism of commemoration, this book uncovers a reading of Scotland's past entirely opposed to the now dominant narratives of medieval proto-nationalism and Calvinist misery.

Review Quotes

A salutary warning to today's politicians and pundits. Even the recent past is too slippery to be invoked convincingly by either side in the referendum debate. Nineteenth-century Scots constructed a national mythology in which the ecclesiastical trumped the political, and where unionism and nationalism were complacently conjoined.-- "Colin Kidd, University of St Andrews"

Coleman goes beyond a traditional historiographical study and lets the reader gain a remarkable insight into the cultural and ideological assumptions that lay at the heart of Victorian society in Scotland. It is a lively and well-written account that manages to avoid some of the dryer and dustier overtones that traditionally hangs over Victorian history and never fails to engage the reader's imagination.--Richard J. Finlay, University of Strathclyde "Innes Review"