The Emperor’s New Kilt: The Two Secret Histories of Scotland

Did you know that most tartans date only from 1822? Or that the kilt was invented by a factory manager? Know that a Scot landed in America almost a century before Columbus? Or that Scotland had electric lighting 70 years before Watt patented the light bulb? Probably not. Because Scotland has two secret histories. The image of the Scots as whisky-drinking, tartan-sporting, tight-fisted kilt wearers is famous throughout the world. That image is manufactured. Yet Scotland’s reputation for producing inventors, thinkers and explorers – people who have changed the course of world history – is nowhere as prevalent. The scale of Scottish influence has been totally under-estimated.