Have educated Scots blurred myth and history? This book suggests that they have but fails to satisfactorily explain how this may have come about.

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Product Description

'I believe that the whole history of Scotland has been coloured by myth; and that myth, in Scotland, is never driven out by reality, or by reason, but lingers on until another myth has been discovered, or elaborated, to replace it,' wrote Hugh Trevor-Roper. This book argues that while Anglo-Saxon culture has given rise to virtually no myths at all, myth has played a central role in the historical development of Scottish identity. Trevor-Roper explores three myths across 400 years of Scottish history: the political myth of the 'ancient constitution' of Scotland; the literary myth, including Walter Scott as well as Ossian and ancient poetry; and the sartorial myth of tartan and the kilt, invented ironically by Englishmen in quite modern times. Trevor-Roper reveals myth as an often deliberate cultural construction used to enshrine a people's identity. While his treatment of Scottish myth is highly critical, indeed debunking, he shows how the ritualisation and domestication of Scotland's myths as local colour diverted the Scottish intelligentsia from the path that led German intellectuals to a dangerous myth of racial supremacy This compelling script was left unpublished on Trevor-Roper's death in 2003 and is now made available for the first time. Written with characteristic elegance, lucidity and wit, and containing defiant and challenging opinions, it will absorb and provoke Scottish readers and intrigue many others.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128321 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review
'A book from beyond the grave... and though it is unfinished, there is no mistaking the sting in the tale.'

"It is well-written, with many end-jottings."
--Dauvit Horsbroch, Lallans, 74, 137-139

'Meticulously researched yet provocative and engrossing, this book exemplifies [Trevor-Roper's] best work.'
--Rab Houston, BBC History, 1st September 2009

`Trevor-Roper's wittiest book ... [His] handling of this material is clever, even virtuosic.'
--Brian Morton, The Observer, 20th September 2009

`A terrifically entertaining and enlightening read.' --Toby Clements, Daily Telegraph, 17th October 2009

`... an elegantly written, witty, and spirited text which is a pleasure to read - south of the Border, at least.'
--Northern History, XLVI (2)

Review
'Written with Hugh Trevor-Roper's characteristic grace and pungency... an enlightening and entertaining work.'

Review
'This witty and elegantly written book will delight any reader with an open mind.'

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Customer Reviews

Denting the haggis & shortbread image of Scotland !
As a patriotic Scot I think we need books like this,because it sets the record straight and challenges some long held romanticised myths about our history.This book deals with the Picts, the Strathclyde Britons and the Germanic settlers in the south east and their relationship with the Scots and how they became the dominant force in the land. Their are large tracts of the book where the author deals with the early literature of Scotland, and it can get rather boring. The book really picks up when the author discusses kilts & tartans, he points out that Highland dress is relatively modern and that the philieg kilt was invented by Thomas Rawlinson,an English Quaker.Before that the highlander wore a belted plaid and his chieftain would have wore trews. When the British army started up Highland regiments they adopted the philibeg with a specific tartan for each regiment, they recruited men from specific clans and so each clan became associated with a tartan. Early portraits of the Grants & McDonald clans have them in a variety of different tartans.This is a good book and worth reading if you are interested in Scotland.

What lies underneath?
As the male youth of the modern world clamours for the kilt, be it tartan, black, or even pink and glitter as seen occasionally in civil partnership ceremonies, it is useful to muse on the findings of Hugh Trevor Roper in this erudite book with copious references attributed.
There is no shortage of websites devoted to the manufacture and selling of Highland dress - or "Highland Attire" as one solemnly attests it must be accurately labelled, perpetuating the myth, as that claim is clearly fatuous and plainly wrong, as indeed, are myths. Otherwise they would not be myths. As Burns had it in his poem, A Dream ... "Facts are chiels that winna ding."
Many of these websites are based in the US, from where supposed scholars of the tartan will avail a clansman of the correct (and various) setts from which a valued customer might choose in order to look his best at a wedding. And at a whopping price. Where a tux might be purchased for around £250, a prospective buyer of the full "Highland Attire" might have to re-mortgage his house.
So that's near the nub of it: where the Sobieski Stuarts and their charlatan ilk sought to improve their status by their propagation of the tartan myth, so did the manufacturers of such costumery profit, neither stopping to consider that the truth of the matter might be relevant to the notion of what it would mean for the young men of the future to be Scottish.
To confront some of these same young men now with these myths would, in some instances, be leaving oneself open to a sucker punch and 'a sore face' such as one might expect in Glasgow at least.
Yet The Invention of Scotland is a book which must be read by all Scots - and indeed our cousins in the rest of the UK - merely to set the record straight. It will surely instil in an intelligent person the quality that - warts and all, to summon up a terror of the Scots - we are what we are. And let's work on that.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear
I read other reviews which said that this book was well-written and researched but I found it tedious in the extreme.

Possibly because the manuscript was left unfinished almost 30 years ago, it's not exactly the most up to date comment on Scottish history either so I'm afraid I cannot recommend it for any reason.