- Hardcover: 382 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (19 Sep 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340639903
- ISBN-13: 978-0340639900
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,103,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
The history of the land and people of the isles and glens of the Highlands of Scotland. Written by an award-winning journalist, the book covers the subject from the turbulent past to the realities of the present.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very enjoyable read. The subjects move with pace & cohesion & are wonderfully researched. There is plenty of added information & detail, much of which was new to this reader. I read around three Scottish History volumes a month & this is a very fine quality volume. Regards James.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An excellent book for anyone who likes their history accessible and interesting, not dusty. The style is informative without being a cure for insomnia. I was engaged in the book from start to finish and ended the book feeling satisfied. The book feels unbiased in its viewpoints and invites the reader to come to their own conclusions without the author being dogmatic. I would recommend this book to my friends!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is essentially the work of a journalist, not a historian. It is no use expecting objectivity or rigorous scholarship; John MacLeod indulges in a few implausible speculations and repeats some widespread but quite erroneous ideas. On the other hand, his is not the urban propagandist's version of Highland history, replete with perfidious Englishmen and burning thatch. You are conscious on every page that the text was written by one born and still living in the Gaidhealtachd, who shares their concerns as one of their own.
An unfortunate consequence of this is the tendency to identify the Gaelic cause with that of Highland presbyterianism, a phenomenon which is after all less than 200 years old. No doubt it is still an important element of life in the Gaelic strongholds of Harris and Lewis; yet for most of their history the Highlands were Catholic (or, as MacLeod prefers to put it, `popish by profession and pagan for real') and some Gaelic-speaking areas are still mainly Catholic or Episcopalian today. Not only are MacLeod's detailed discussions of evangelical sects and splinter groups likely to tax the patience of the average reader, but he allows his religious beliefs to colour the whole narrative. His account of the early Celtic Church, especially, is rankly false. A man who is capable of using a phrase like `a Roman Catholic of the worst kind' and of writing that `mass hysteria often seems to accompany the symptoms of genuine Revival' - both without apparent irony - does not possess the degree of detachment expected of even a popular historian. For me, this is a serious flaw; but to be fair MacLeod acknowledges his own prejudices at the outset. If the reader accepts them in good part, they mar but don't spoil the book.
Mr MacLeod throughout follows the convention of `Gael' as meaning strictly `Gaelic-speaker', and therefore the book's purview shrinks as it goes on - from the concerns of a large and powerful region in the early chapters to those of a few thousand islanders by the end. That, in a nutshell, is the story of Gaeldom. To the outsider, the closing chapters may seem somewhat anti-climactic, with their minutiae of ferry timetables and church politics, but these are the issues which matter to islanders. If he was to update the volume, he might add to those the present preoccupations with windfarms, estate buyouts and Gaelic-medium education.
Apart from that, nothing much has changed in the ten years since this was written. For the reader interested in the region as it is now, as well as in history, this makes a very readable survey. Despite the naivety and preconceptions MacLeod has a sure grasp of historical process, and there are some penetrating insights.
An unfortunate consequence of this is the tendency to identify the Gaelic cause with that of Highland presbyterianism, a phenomenon which is after all less than 200 years old. No doubt it is still an important element of life in the Gaelic strongholds of Harris and Lewis; yet for most of their history the Highlands were Catholic (or, as MacLeod prefers to put it, `popish by profession and pagan for real') and some Gaelic-speaking areas are still mainly Catholic or Episcopalian today. Not only are MacLeod's detailed discussions of evangelical sects and splinter groups likely to tax the patience of the average reader, but he allows his religious beliefs to colour the whole narrative. His account of the early Celtic Church, especially, is rankly false. A man who is capable of using a phrase like `a Roman Catholic of the worst kind' and of writing that `mass hysteria often seems to accompany the symptoms of genuine Revival' - both without apparent irony - does not possess the degree of detachment expected of even a popular historian. For me, this is a serious flaw; but to be fair MacLeod acknowledges his own prejudices at the outset. If the reader accepts them in good part, they mar but don't spoil the book.
Mr MacLeod throughout follows the convention of `Gael' as meaning strictly `Gaelic-speaker', and therefore the book's purview shrinks as it goes on - from the concerns of a large and powerful region in the early chapters to those of a few thousand islanders by the end. That, in a nutshell, is the story of Gaeldom. To the outsider, the closing chapters may seem somewhat anti-climactic, with their minutiae of ferry timetables and church politics, but these are the issues which matter to islanders. If he was to update the volume, he might add to those the present preoccupations with windfarms, estate buyouts and Gaelic-medium education.
Apart from that, nothing much has changed in the ten years since this was written. For the reader interested in the region as it is now, as well as in history, this makes a very readable survey. Despite the naivety and preconceptions MacLeod has a sure grasp of historical process, and there are some penetrating insights.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Epic Tale Spoilt by Parochial Tone
After a good start in which we get a rare look at Scotland's history from the Highland viewpoint this book goes downhill rapidly due to the author's parochial Presbyterian approach... Read more
Published on 23 Nov 2008 by John Fitzpatrick
Stable can be boring
The book follows the stream of highland life from its known beginnings to the modern era, the author explores many of the branches of this stream, social, economic, political, etc. Read more
Published on 22 May 2003 by mathiais
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