How the Scots Invented the Modern World

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The roots come from an appreciation for democracy and literacy that developed from the Scottish Reformation, when John Knox brought Calvinist Presbyterianism to Scotland.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World - Wikipedia

Scottish trade and industry were constricted by the policies of England, their more powerful neighbor to the south.

He explains the huge influence that Scots had in creating and developing the early American system of education and universities such as Princeton. However, the man I learned most about is one whose name I knew only, Francis Hutcheson, a teacher of Adam Smith's at the University in Glasgow, and a great philosopher and humanist, who in his writing inspired abolitionists not only in Scotland but from London to Philadelphia. Herman never quite escapes the sense of merely delivering a laundry-list of great names and inventions, most of which could be more or less grasped by consulting Wikipedia's article on Scottish inventions and discoveries.

How The Scots Invented The Modern World: The True Story of How The Scots Invented The Modern World: The True Story of

And he explains very clearly the impact of the Darien scheme on both the financial state of Scotland and on its self-confidence as a nation. Most Scots immigrants in the American colonies sympathized with the British during the American Revolutionary War but those who did fight in the militias were the most capable because many were the same refugee families from the 1745 Jacobite rising. But I have to walk my daily steps, so I slogged through the audio and learned me some philosophy and economics, along with who Francis Hutcheson and Lord Kames were. At the time of publication, the author was the coordinator of the Western Civilization Program at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.For this is a story not just about Scotland: it is an exciting account of the origins of the modern world and its consequences.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World - Arthur Herman How the Scots Invented the Modern World - Arthur Herman

While I thought some Scottish connections were stretched a bit thin, and I figure most nations or cultures could come up with their own claims, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it, in fact, I would like to own this book, which from me is a high recommendation. This has interesting consequences: the main figures of the French Enlightenment, to take one obvious comparison, were furiously anti-religion, but that was never the case in Scotland, where even atheists like Hume did not get very worked-up about it.The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization. In science and industry Herman states that James Watt's steam engine "gave capitalism its modern face, which has persisted down to today". Herman discusses the reasons behind the Jacobite rebellions, showing that the divide was much more complex than the simplistic picture of Scotland v England, so beloved of nationalists and film-makers alike.

How Scotland invented the modern world | Metro News How Scotland invented the modern world | Metro News

Were I in charge of curriculum design at a high school, college or university, I would put this volume on the 'must-read' list for its historical importance in the grand scheme of things, especially for students of world history. I liked the history in the book (I had taken 4 Brit Lit courses for my undergrad and grad English degree and had learned about the relationship between England and Scotland then, so it was good to revisit some of that).

A well-written and complete history that connects both the history, the minds, the movers and shakers, and the conflicts in Scotland from the 1600s to the 1900s with references to earlier times included for perspective. Herman gave quite a bit of space to David Livingstone, the missionary to Africa, who also happened to study chemistry with a classmate, Lord Kelvin! He also recognises the crucial importance of education, pinpointing Scotland as ‘Europe's first modern literate society’ – and this, in turn, is referred back to John Knox's insane but thorough religious reformation.