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Synopsis
Of all the Celtic peoples once dominant across the whole of Europe north of the Alps, the Scots were the only ones who established a kingdom that lasted. Wales and Brittany, subject to the same sort of pressure from a powerful neighbour, retained linguistic distinctiveness but lost political nationhood; Ireland became a patchwork of petty kingdoms, unable to throw off the domination of the English. What made Scotland's history so different from theirs? Alan Macquarrie's powerful account of medieval Scotland explores the reasons for Scotland's distinctiveness and its unceasing search for freedom and a national identity. The picture of medieval Scotland that emerges is a surprisingly 'modern' one, with its rich racial mix - the Scots were not a pure Celtic people but a mixture of Celtic races, Gaels, Picts and Britons, with strong non-Celtic elements such as Norse and English - and its strong regional identities making it almost egalitarian. From the situation in Scotland at the end of Roman Britain until the political and religious revolutions of the sixteenth century, including Scotland's achievements in the creative sphere, the social life of the people and the nation's relations

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   6 of 8 people found the following review helpful: Not worth buying ..., 3 Feb 2006 By A Customer There seems to be no clear reason why this book was published, other than to saturate the market. This book is largely unoriginal in content, and contributes almost nothing to the field. The author has some skewed views about the Britons, and elevates on several occassions his guesswork into fact. In a previous work, he would style the Kings of Strathclyde with Welsh names when it was possible, but would anglicize Gaelic names. He knows little about Celtic philology, which is why he thinks "Dufnal" can only represent Dyfnwal and not Domnall; this is presumably because he doesn't know how the Gaelic name was pronounced. One wonders why he couldn't find a Welsh form for the name "Máel Coluim"; but one is equally surprised that he didn't just invent it, as he did many of the others. Fortunately, the author spents most of the work rehashing old ideas; however, there are better works for that than this one about. In short, the book is not worth buying. Wait until later in the year when Fraser, Woolf and Oram bring out studies of proper quality.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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