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How the Scots Invented the Modern World (平装)
by Arthur Herman
| Category:
History |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
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¥ 148.00
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MSL rating:
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| MSL Pointer Review:
Land of fancy, people with "brave heart" - this book tells you how the Scots become the first modern nation and literate society, which can never be neglected in human history. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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Michael Barone (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
Finally we have a book that explains how the . . . Scots created the modern civilized values America and the Western world still uphold. This is a great book, one which is now even more relevant than ever. |
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Irvine Welsh (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
Arthur Herman provides a convincing and compelling argument. . . . He is a natural writer, weaving philosophical concerns seamlessly through a historical narrative that romps along at a cracking pace. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
A skeptic could easily be converted by Herman’s deft presentation . . . this work sets a high academic standard yet is carefully leavened with colorful anecdotes |
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Sunday Times , UK
<2007-05-06 00:00>
Herman’s book tells an exciting story with gusto . . . its range and narrative verve make it an entertaining and illuminating read. |
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VanGaalen (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
How did it come about that between 1700 and 1800 a small undeveloped European country transformed itself into a modern capitalist democracy? The title is obviously pretentious and used as a marketing gimmick. It worked on me because it convinced me to buy this book. Historian Arthur Herman is not Scottish or of Scottish descent, but he has written a very compelling chronicle of the miracle of the Scottish Enlightenment.
In 1707, the Union Act united the kingdoms of Scotland and England. Prior to this, the two antagonists living on opposite sides of Hadrian's Wall wanted nothing to do with each other. Scotland consisted mainly of primitive clans living in the highlands and slightly more advanced lowlanders living mainly in the cities of Glascow and Edinburgh. The parliament in Edinburgh was controlled by groups of noblemen who in turn were dominated by the rigid and inquisitorial Presbyterian Kirk (church) of Scotland.
After 1707, there were two developments that were crucial to Scotland's rise to modernity. The first was the opening up to the economic free trade zone of the British Empire. At first the Scottish fretted about either being swallowed-up by their world-class English competitors or becoming pauperized like the Irish. Their fears were misplaced, neither happened. Instead, the Scottish became, Herman argues, the most significant player in the the empire's economic and intellectual sphere.
The second big reason for Scottish success was their public education system - the first in Europe. This was the work of the Presbyterian Kirk. They maintained that political power, ordained by God, was vested in the people, not the monarchy or the church. The Kirk believed that all people should be able to read the Bible, and as a consequence they achieved a 75% literacy rate - unprecedented in 1750.
Near-universal education produced in this tiny country a disproportionate number of world-class thinkers - David Hume, Francis Hutchison, and Adam Smith, to name a few. They transformed the fields of philosophy, history, economics, education, commerce, architecture, and many more. Due to their mutual animosity toward the English, the Scots found inspiration from the great thinkers of the French Enlightenment, and vice versa. It was Voltaire who said that, "We look to Scotland for all of our ideas of civilization."
As for Herman's claim that the Scots invented the modern world, it should be taken with a grain of salt. In the free trade zone of the British Empire, commerce and ideas flowed both ways. It can be said that the Scots did much to improve or make new existing ideas, and in some cases invent; but they did not singlehandedly invent the modern world.
The Scottish Enlightenment was not without its dark side. The modernizing of the Scottish Highlands was anything but civilized. Before the Scots exported the ideas of goverment and commerce abroad, it had to brutally convert some of its own population. Herman also sidesteps the ugly fact that the Scots were deeply involved in the slave trade and the Klu Klux Klan in the US, and in the opium trade in China - recall the trading companies of Jardine Matheson and Hutchison Whampoa originally spoke with a Scottish burr. Not to say that they invented either of these unseemly businesses, but they certainly flourished in them.
Nevertheless, Professor Herman is a gifted writer and he is exceptionally good at explaining the many geniuses that populated this tiny country during the 18th century.
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Allison (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
Do not be misled by the title, nor by the cover art. While this book's evidence does support the title, this is the story of a people who became great largely by overcoming, modifying, even partially destroying their own old culture, with their own hands and minds. It is anything but chauvanistic, or dewey-eyed peerings into the misty, mythologized past.
In the end, they did not assimiliate into dominant English culture. The old culture was at its philosophical, theological, poitical, and economic dead end. To avoid irrelevancy and permanent Third-World status, the scots, across their entire culture, hauled themselves up by their (discarded) sporrans, taking from England and Union only what they needed. In the process, they buried the auld culture, forged a new one with a breathtaking and comprehensive Scottish Renaissance, and through the power of their ideas and its dispersal through England to the world, gave shape to global, practical, liberal modernism.
It is a persuasive book, and is not only for Scots or Scots-in-waiting. As in the 19th and 20th centuries we saw poor, backward nations (Japan, Ireland, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore) transform themselves and leap forward (sorry, Chariman Mao), so this is their template from the 18th Century. The story gives hope that such leaps, while not yet the rule, may be less the exception in the future for our modern poor nations.
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James (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
It was nice to re-learn the old adage to "not judge a book by its cover". I had been reluctant to read the book by the title alone and what a missed pleasure and educational experience that would have been. As some other reviewers have noted, the title is not entirely indicative of the topics explored. The wealth of knowledge of the new discoveries of human nature, good government, and historical shifts due to the 'changes in the means of production' (i.e. capitalism) abound from Lord Kames to Adam Smith during the Scottish Enlightenment. Also, if one is interested in the genesis of North America and other Democracies, one should not bypass this book.
The book is divided in two parts, of the "Ephinany" (I call it Human Nature discovery) and the "Diaspora". This 1st part and I believe the heart of the book primarily explores the Scottish Enlightenment of the Protestant ethos from Francis Hutcheson, Lord Kames to Adam Smith and David Hume of 'man as a product of history and that we are ultimately creatures of our environment' and 'the way people earn a living shapes the character of their laws, their government, and their culture'. The 2nd part is the Diaspora of the Scots due to the 'clearances' or 'famines' and other reasons and their migrational impact and contributions to other societies.
As for many reviewer's concern about the footnotes or lack there of, such items like the origins of 'blackmail' or 'redneck' are easily found or verified by completing a search with multiple sources identified within a few seconds. However, I do see their point with respect to the many quotes within the book, but don't believe this takes away from the theme of topics the author explores and appear to not have been challenged since publication.
All in, a worthwhile read and high marks if nothing else than for just the 1st part of the book with the exploration of themes on policies for good government and the 'changes in the means of production' and its impact on history.
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Colin (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
It was nice to re-learn the old adage to "not judge a book by its cover". I had been reluctant to read the book by the title alone and what a missed pleasure and educational experience that would have been. As some other reviewers have noted, the title is not entirely indicative of the topics explored. The wealth of knowledge of the new discoveries of human nature, good government, and historical shifts due to the 'changes in the means of production' (i.e. capitalism) abound from Lord Kames to Adam Smith during the Scottish Enlightenment. Also, if one is interested in the genesis of North America and other Democracies, one should not bypass this book.
The book is divided in two parts, of the "Ephinany" (I call it Human Nature discovery) and the "Diaspora". This 1st part and I believe the heart of the book primarily explores the Scottish Enlightenment of the Protestant ethos from Francis Hutcheson, Lord Kames to Adam Smith and David Hume of 'man as a product of history and that we are ultimately creatures of our environment' and 'the way people earn a living shapes the character of their laws, their government, and their culture'. The 2nd part is the Diaspora of the Scots due to the 'clearances' or 'famines' and other reasons and their migrational impact and contributions to other societies.
As for many reviewer's concern about the footnotes or lack there of, such items like the origins of 'blackmail' or 'redneck' are easily found or verified by completing a search with multiple sources identified within a few seconds. However, I do see their point with respect to the many quotes within the book, but don't believe this takes away from the theme of topics the author explores and appear to not have been challenged since publication.
All in, a worthwhile read and high marks if nothing else than for just the 1st part of the book with the exploration of themes on policies for good government and the 'changes in the means of production' and its impact on history.
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Sam (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
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.
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Thomas (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
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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1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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