How the Scots Invented the Modern World

Product Information

And no one who takes this incredible historical trek will ever view the Scots--or the modern West--in the same way again.

Union gave Scotland access to England's global marketplace, triggering an economic and cultural boom "transform[ing] Scotland. The Scotland of William Wallace is not the Scotland that Arthur Herman celebrates in "How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything In It. He lucidly summarizes the ideas, discoveries, and achievements that made this small country facing on the North Atlantic an inspiration and driving force in world history.

He preached that God ordained power into the people and that it was for the people to administer and enforce God's laws, not the monarchy.

This book may do for the Scots what Thomas Cahill did for the Irish when he wrote "How the Irish Saved Western Civilization. But Smith’s bold insight was to realize that it was the genius of capitalism to carry both of these characteristics, the pursuit of self-interest and the need for cooperation, to their highest pitch.The Scots immediately benefited from a centralized government that paid little attention to it—for example, inexpensive imports reduced the impacts of famines and allowed a Scottish culture to flourish. The author, incidentally, is not Scottish--he's merely a historian and a storyteller, telling us something we probably haven't heard before. The Scots also made key contributions to the military, economic and administrative success of the British Empire. 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.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William "Braveheart" Wallace to James Bond. We are, in the end, creatures of habit, and of the physical and social environment within which our emotions and passions must operate.The people were always more powerful than the rulers they created; they were free to remove them at will. A distinguished historian explores the seminal contributions of Scotland to the development of modern Western civilization, discussing the impact of such ideals as democracy, freedom of speech, equal opportunity, and a commitment to education and exploring Scottish accomplishments in the fields of philosophy, science, medicine, engineering, political thought, and more. This meant they were welcome as immigrants everywhere due to their educated ways, and inevitable contributions.

They are “guilty,” “not guilty,” and “not proven,” which jurors invoke when they decide the prosecution has failed to make a compelling case even when the prisoner is obviously guilty. In the early 1700s the Scottish Enlightenment began and with it came a greatly enhanced understanding of our world and breakthrough philosopies in economies, physics and many other sciences.In many ways the writings of the Scottish Enlightenment period formed the underpinnings for the basic philosophies of the United States. When the ruler or rulers failed to act in the people’s interest, Buchanan wrote, then each and every citizen, even “the lowest and meanest of men,” had the sacred right and duty to resist that tyrant, even to the point of killing him. The values of Eton, Cambridge, and Oxford, of the Reform and Athenaeum clubs, and of Lord’s Cricket Grounds steadily replaced those of a grittier homegrown variety. Herman provides a section, at the end of the book, listing sources used and suggestions for further reading on each chapter. For this is a story not just about Scotland: it is an exciting account of the origins of the modern world and its consequences.