In their bombastic introductory blurb, the publishers of this book promise much.
The volume will offer a fresh perspective on 19th-century Scotland, they trumpet, which "goes well beyond the conventional analyses of economy and society to which previous histories have confined themselves". It will also contain "detailed new research" which does not rely on "theories or statistics". In his own pitch, the author once again asserts his familiar dogma that "the traditional dominance of socioeconomic material in Scottish historiography is today doing the nation a disservice".
There are two major problems with this kind of irritating boosterism. First, it creates a straw man by falsely labelling recent histories of the period as only concerned with society and economy. From the books of Sydney and Olive Checkland on 19th-century Scotland, published some decades ago, to Ewen Cameron's 2010 history, Impaled Upon A Thistle, modern academic historians have always written broad panoramas of the nation's past which contain discussions of politics, popular culture, ideas, identity and much else. Even works grounded on economic and social issues avoid a focus on these matters alone. To do otherwise would be myopic in the extreme. This author completely distorts the nature of modern Scottish historiography in order to erroneously claim originality for his own approach.
Second, hardly any of the objectives so boldly outlined in blurb and introduction are fulfilled. Apart from the final section on high culture there is little new in this book. It does not change our understanding of Victorian Scotland one iota. The promised "new research" is minimal. A glance at the pages of footnotes confirms that the volume is overwhelmingly based on secondary sources, many of them written by the very same economic and social historians whom the author apparently holds in such high disdain. Even more remarkably, of the 15 chapters of text, nine are straightforward accounts of the nation's economy or society, the very approach Fry denounces.
The title of the volume will hardly please half the adult population of Scotland today. There is indeed a discussion of women in Victorian society but it is ghettoised in a single chapter with hardly any reference to women elsewhere in the text, with the exception of a few paragraphs on jute workers in Dundee. Like so much of the text, the approach is old-fashioned, with the author oblivious to key trends in modern historiography. The enormous advances in gender and family history mean the role of women can and should be integrated into the general narrative rather than marginalised in its own enclave.
Astonishingly, especially in light of its claims, this study suffers from two staggering lacunae which place a serious question mark against it being regarded as a rounded history of 19th-century Scotland. Two of the central themes of the period, each with a huge impact on the development of the nation, namely Scotland in the British Empire and the Scottish Diaspora, are ignored. The depth and extent of Scottish involvement in the Victorian Empire was such that every nook and cranny of national life was influenced, whether economy, politics, ideas, religion or popular culture. Quite simply the country in this period was moulded by empire; not to treat the subject in detail is incomprehensible in a book which purports to be a serious history. Equally the extraordinary mass movement of the Scots across the globe is a vital aspect of the national story. Between 1815 and 1914, for every two Scottish children who survived past infancy, one would leave their native land for ever. That vast haemorrhage of people requires explanation, not least because such an analysis tells us much about the nature of the society which generated it. Those looking for answers will not find them in this book.
However, this volume fails because it lacks intellectual excitement. The author's preference is for description and narrative with a great deal of factual information in support. Those readers interested in the clash of ideas and opposing interpretations, new and challenging insights, why developments occur in the past and what might be their consequences, the resolution of paradoxes and puzzles - the analysis of history - will have to look elsewhere.
Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article