Union and Revolution: Scotland and Beyond, 1625-1745

Scotland’s history in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries continues to get a bad press. Popular books and television programmes portray this period as one defined by economic stagnation, religious fanaticism, and cultural backwardness. These assumptions help to reinforce the idea, commonplace amongst the British governing and media establishments, that the loss of Scotland’s political autonomy through incorporating union with England in 1707 was the necessary price to be paid for stability and prosperity. Although scholars no longer see Scotland’s journey from sovereign kingdom to provincial status within a global Anglo-Britannic empire in these terms, there is limited public awareness of alternative views. Union, Revolution and War provides a provocative but accessible new account of a contentious and highly volatile period in both Scottish and British history. Although Scotland’s political, economic, and diplomatic affairs were undeniably dominated by the relationship with England, Scottish society and culture remained distinctive. The seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries cannot be characterised simply as a story of Scottish assimilation into an Anglo-Britannic state.