The Scottish Invention of America, Democracy and Human Rights: A History of Liberty and Freedom from the Ancient Celts to the New Millennium: A ... from the Ancient Celts to the New Millenium [Paperback]

The Scottish Invention of America, Democracy & Human Rights is a brilliant and creative tour de force by the distinguished intellectual historians, Dr. A.L Klieforth and Dr. R.J. Munro. Their book will force the historical establishment, particuilarly the Anglo-centric historians, S. Schama, R. Porter, A. Herman, P. Maier, G. Wood and B. Bailyn, to reevaluate the entire history of individual liberty and freedom and give proper credit to the roles played by the Celts, Irish, and Scots in the historical drama.
William Wallace (c. 1270-1305) played by Mel Gibson in the movie, Bravehart, is often seen as an isolated rebel or even a fictional charater. Yet, the historical William Wallace was a representative of the spiritual and intellectual forces of Scotland, particularly the writing of John Duns Scotus (c. 1265/66-1308) and the radical political thought of the ancient Celts and the individualism of Celtic Christanity. Scotus was the first to write of the "consent of the governed" in his Ordinato (c.1290s) that quickly became known in Scotland and was the intellectual and spiritual foundation of Wallace's rebellion (c. 1297-1305) and the Scottish Declaration of Independance (1320). Scotus' theory of human society, grounded in ancioent Celtic traditions, was to revolutionize the thought and pratice of the Western world. The Democratic revolution that began in Celtic Europe and Scotland was the mightiest revolution in the history of the world.
This is a revolutionary work not only for its explanation of the origin of democracy but, secondly, for its explanation of the radicalism of the American revolution. Anglocentric historians failed to realize that the liberty of John Locke and the English Whigs (1660s) descended from the ancient Celts and Scotus through the Scots, Mair Buchanan, Knox and Hutcheson and then spread through the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers to the American founding fathers. Thus, they were not able to explain the Celtic-Scottish "revolution principles" of the founding fathers by references to the theory of Locke and the Whigs which was fundamentally a conservative, "evolutionary" philosophy. Scotus's theory as expressed in the Scottish Declaration of Independence of 1320 was the intellectual foundation of the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence of 1776.
Thirdly, the book's uniqueness is found in its panoramic view of the history of freedom & human rights from 1300 BC to 2004 AD. The authors trace the philosophy and fight for freedom from the ancient Celts to the medieval Scots to the Scottish Enlightenment to the creation of America to the modern human rights struggle. The book also locates the origin of human rights not in Locke but in ancient Celts and the Irish-Scottish human rights treaty, Cain Adomnain, The Law of Innocents, 697 AD.
We are in debt to the authors for thinking "outside the box," creating a contrarian and enlightening view of Wesrern history and opening our minds to the true history of freedom.
Professor S. Suzuki

This is a book about the birth & history of liberty & freedom from a Scottish viewpoint. Without blowing bagpipes or waving their tartans, the authors set out to prove that democracy & human rights had their roots in Scotland. The case is well made. The authors exhaustively review the impact of the Scots in these two areas. The book begins in 1300 BC and brings us up to 2004.

The authors present strong and compelling proof that the roots of liberty & the struggles for freedom, for individuals and nations, date back to the ancient Celts, followed by the Scottish struggle for independence. The radical political thought
had only been hinted at until the Scots were willing to walk the talk. Less talk, more walk is what you get in The Scottish Invention of America.

Most notably, you will learn there was a lot more to John Duns Scotus than theological papers. In my opinion, he is the backbone for this book, and it would benefit all interested Scots to re-read Scotus or, for the majority of us, to read him for the first time. He was, as the authors so ably point out, "one of the two foremost moral philosophers of the European Middle Ages." The other? Thomas Aquinas. John Duns Scotus championed human rights, individual freedom and basically a government that exists only with the consent of the people, or as we know it today, "of the people, by the people, for the people."

In Latin, Scotus means "the Scot." Born near Stirling Castle in Duns, Berwickshire, he was known as the Subtle Doctor. Scotus "left behind a monumental work in the field of metaphysics..." at Oxford. Sent to Paris to continue his studies, he was expelled from France in 1303 for siding with the Pope in a dispute with Philip the Fair. Allowed to return to Paris in 1305, Scotus went on to earn his Doctorate in Theology and began his professorship. His "academic and scholarly career led to his international reputation as one of the foremost medieval scholastics."

He found himself involved in another brouhaha about his then radical view of the Immaculate Conception. Ironically, the Roman Catholic Church universally accepts his view today. Forced to leave France again, he found his way to Cologne, Germany where he continued to lecture until his premature death at the age of 43. Buried in Cologne, there is this inscription I borrowed from Duncan Bruce's The Scottish 100:

Scotia me genuit, Scotland begot me
Anglia me suscepit, England reared me

Gallia me docuit, France taught me
Colonia me tenet. Cologne holds me

And I would add, the freedom loving countries of this world thank you, John Duns Scotus.

The book does not end with John Duns Scotus. There is much more that deals with new insights regarding The Scottish Invention of America (Part Two) and the Age of Rights of Mankind (Part Three). Space, unfortunately, does not permit further discussion, but any lover of Scottish books will want a copy of this unique book for their library. Any lover of freedom will find this a "must have" book. It is refreshing writing that offers new insights regarding our freedom - as individuals and as a nation. Any serious Scottish student will have a wonderful time with this book. The authors have done all of us a favor by writing it, so do yourself one and purchase it! Klieforth and Munro have included a masterful fifty-page chronology of Celtic, Scottish and American events. That in itself is worth the price of a good book, and this one fits that description. You will spend many enjoyable hours with this publication. Please note: ISBN 0-7618-2791-9. Published by the University Press of America.
For a 15% discount, please go to www.univpress.com.

Frank R. Shaw 7-5-04
The Family Tree

The work of Alexander L. Klieforth and Robert J. Munro in "The Scottish Invention of America" is a fascinating and important account of the role played by Scottish political theorists in the development of what would later be understood as classical liberalism. This is a monograph worth studying for several reasons. It is, simultaneously, an analysis of early Scottish notions of individual freedom, limited centralized politcal power, and the idea of "consent" which will later come to play such a pivotal role in the writings of such English theorists as John Locke. The reference to Locke brings me to the other level of analysis in this book that makes its scholarly worth all the more obvious. Klieforth and Munro make a persuasive argument that the long-established assumption that English theorists such as Locke play an almost exclusive role in the formation of classical liberal thought is one that is, to put it mildly, ahistorical. They provide convincing and consistent evidence that classical liberalism, typically linked with such theorists as Locke and Thomas Hobbes, have, in reality, a Scottish background that is all too often overlooked. All those interested in the intellectual history of democracy in general, and the development of "consent" in particular, will find this book to be both important and indispensable. This is a monograph destined to be an integral part of the historiography of Western liberalsim, notions of democracy, and the role of individual freedom.

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