Clanship to Crofter’s War: Social Transformation of the Scottish Highlands

This work charts the story of the people of the Scottish Highlands from the 1745 Jacobite uprising to the great crofter’s rebellion in the 1880s – a story of defeat, social dissolution, emigration, rebellion and cultural revival. T.M. Devine argues that the Highlands in the 18th and 19th centuries saw the wholesale transformation of a society, at a pace without parallel anywhere in western Europe. Beginning with the decline of clanship before and after Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite rebellion, he explores themes in the process of fundamental social change: the development of the crofting economy, the clearances, transatlantic emigration, the Great Highland famine and the emergence of the Highland landed class. He juxtaposes the “making of Highlandism”, with its tartan paraphenalia, with the harsh realities of the crofting way of life and explores the vibrant and persistent Gaelic culture. Finally, he offers a full-scale examination of the uprising which played a vital role in reasserting Gaelic identity, the Crofter’s War.