Looking for a one-volume work on the history of Scotland

by wwstevens

Any suggestions? I mainly am hoping for a great narrative work that focuses on the bigger picture of the different eras, while avoiding the tendency towards hero-worship and mythologizing that popular histories are sometime prone towards. I realize I may not be able to find a one volume work, so if I must narrow it down, I'm mainly interested in Early Modern Scotland, so roughly 16th to mid-18th century, from the Tudor Era to the beginning of the Hanovers in England. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. I'm looking for a great book to delve into during the Christmas break (college student here) that will teach me a great deal. Thanks

historiagrephour

Oh man, I can't tell you how excited your question has made me! Unfortunately, I don't have a comprehensive one-volume recommendation even for just early modern Scotland because in order to get a really good grasp of the subject and avoid the eulogizing of popular history, you're going to have to look at multiple works. That said, Edinburgh University Press has recently published a multi-volume series, The New History of Scotland that has been edited by and contributed to by the biggest scholarly names in Scottish history. All of the contributors are respected in the field and the series itself gives a really good overview of the main themes and most important events and developments within Scotland from the year AD80 to the twentieth century (though the newest edition of the twentieth century volume won't be available until next year).

The titles of the volumes, in chronological order by subject, are:

  • Alfred Smyth, Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland AD80-1000 (Edinburgh, 1989).
  • G.W.S. Barrow, Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000-1306 (Edinburgh, 2003).
  • Alexander Grant, Independence and Nationhood: Scotland 1306-1469 (Edinburgh, 1991)
  • Katie Stevenson, Power and Propaganda: Scotland 1306-1488 (Edinburgh, 2014).
  • Jenny Wormald, Court, Kirk and Community: Scotland 1470-1625 (Edinburgh, 1991).
  • Rosalind Mitchison, Lordship to Patronage: Scotland 1603-1745 (Edinburgh, 1990).
  • Jenny Wormald, Crown, Covenant and Union: Scotland 1625-1763 (Edinburgh, 2015).
  • Bruce Lenman, Enlightenment and Change: Scotland 1746-1832 (Edinburgh, 2009).
  • Olive and Sydney Checkland, Industry and Ethos: Scotland 1832-1914 (Edinburgh, 1989).
  • Graeme Morton, Ourselves and Others: Scotland 1832-1914 (Edinburgh, 2012).
  • Christopher Harvie, No Gods and Precious Few Heroes: Twentieth-Century Scotland (Edinburgh, 2015).

Hopefully you don't feel daunted by this massive list; obviously you probably won't be able to get through the whole thing over Christmas but tackling them all will be very much worth your while.