How the Scots Invented the Modern World

Product Information

It is a starting point for those who want to learn the basics about Hume, Smith and Hutchinson, or learn more about the Acts of Union that formed Great Britain 300 years ago and may become dissolved in the near future. Scots' contribution to modern society is illustrated with biographies of Scots like Dugald Stewart, John Witherspoon, John McAdam, Thomas Telford, and John Pringle, among others. As a general introduction to the Scottish thinkers of the 18th century and to the subsequent activities of the Scottish diaspora, it is sensible and measured. This book may do for the Scots what Thomas Cahill did for the Irish when he wrote "How the Irish Saved Western Civilization. The Reformation laid down strong roots in the Scottish Lowlands, that belt of fertile land and river valleys running from the Firth of Clyde and Glasgow in the extreme west to just north of Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall across to Edinburgh and Berwick-on-Tweed in the east.

In it Buchanan asserted that all political authority ultimately belonged to the people, who came together to elect someone, whether a king or a body of magistrates, to manage their affairs. Beginning in 1559, Knox single-handedly inspired, intimidated, and bullied Scotland's nobility and urban classes into overthrowing the Catholic Church of their forebears and adopting the religious creed of Geneva's John Calvin. Gridlock at the public level guarantees liberty at the private level: this was the dirty little secret Madison dared to unveil in the Federalist Papers. Herman claims that the Scottish School of Common Sense influenced much of the American declaration of independence and constitution. In an excellent summary over two chapters, Herman outlines the Scottish Enlightenment and the men who created it.

This time I was able to really focus and listen and I picked up so much I missed the first time and also was able to process some of the concepts more thoroughly. Everyone, the artist and the artisan, the philosopher and the mechanic, the scholar and the manufacturer, was engaged in the same project: creating a polite, humane, enlightened culture. Edinburgh transformed from a sleepy regional capital to a city that rivaled London, Paris and Amsterdam in importance. Politeness for Shaftesbury encapsulated all the strengths of a sophisticated culture: its keen sense of understanding, its flourishing art and literature, its self-confidence, its regard for truth and the importance of intellectual criticism, and, most important, an appreciation of the humane side of our character. It was a place where all ideas were created equal, where brains rather than social rank took pride of place, and where serious issues could be debated with, in the words of Lord Shaftesbury, “that sort of freedom which is taken.

Human progress rests on expanding that capacity to its utmost and to as many people as possible, so that we can all become truly, morally free. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics—contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since. Perennials PERENNIALS constant friends A selection of novels, memoirs and more by some of our favourite authors.

Over the next century, Scots would learn to rely on their own resources and ingenuity far more than their southern neighbors would. The point of this book is that being Scottish is more than just a matter of nationality or place of origin or clan or even culture.