Craftworkers in Nineteenth Century Scotland: Making and Adapting in an Industrial Age

A cultural history of artisans and hand skills against the background of technical and commercial modernisation in Scotland

Shortlisted for Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year 2022

Draws on personal, business, institutional and official records as well as newspaper reports and visual illustrations

Examples cover the whole of Scotland and all areas of craftwork and handmade goods

Considers the changing cultural value accorded to handmade goods for craftworkers and their customers

This book examines individuals, families and communities of craftworkers and their changing experience in town and country. Based on case studies drawn from personal, business, institutional and official records, as well as newspaper reports and visual illustrations, it looks at workplace dynamics and handmade wares shaped by personal consumption, rather than industrial production.

Stana Nenadic examines the ‘things’ that were made and the values they embodied at a time when most Scots were still engaged in hand making either for income or pleasure despite Scotland’s emergence as a great industrial powerhouse.

Reviews of Craftworkers in Nineteenth Century Scotland: Making and Adapting in an Industrial Age

"I have learned more from this fine study than any number of other recent books on modern ?Scottish history. It is undeniably pioneering, skillfully undermining a number of old orthodoxies about Scotland's craftworkers, and will stand as the standard work on the subject for many years to come. " -Professor Emeritus Sir Tom Devine, University of Edinburgh