Customer Reviews

Highlanders: A History of the Gaels

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

After reading Tranter's "Story of Scotland," I was ready to delve deeper into Scotland's history. This work fills in many of the blanks, and does so in a way that holds my interest. There was much that I had missed, including a true grasp of the Viking culture and how it affected Scotland. I knew very little of the way the clan system worked in the isles, and how the Crown tried to control them. MacLeod explains with insight why some of the clans virtually disappeared, and others flourished. I also didn't realize that the Isle of Lewis had been almost entirely destroyed and burned. Some events that are simply alluded to in other books are explained here, so that I feel my grasp of the history has truly been improved. A highly recommended read!

This is what you might call `a popular history' in that, the facts are there, but so is the author's commentary. The author obviously meant to cover a lot of ground, fully intending his work not to be exhaustive, but a personable introduction to the history of Scotland. This is an excellant introductory work which will serve every reader as a primer for further, specialized study. A bit of bias with some topics, is here, very welcome: a Scot writing of Scotland can't be anything but bias. He provides an enlightening view on the Celtic Church and St. Columba. There is an excellant chapter dealing mostly with the vikings. Of course he talks about Bonnie Prince Charlie, Burns, and obvious figures of note.

The style of his prose is most powerful when talking about the Clearances... and Sutherland. His later chapters dealing with all the complicated goings on of the churches in Scotland was at times illuminating, and even a bit humorous. I learned more on those matters in Highlanders, than anywhere else. His exploration of recent Scottish culture in the last century was the crown of the book: everything from the hopeful renewal of Gaelic culture to the story of "Whiskey Galore" (the tragic event, the book, AND the movie).

Throughout the book there are maps of the different parts of Scotland being discussed, excerpts from popular folk songs, and even a reproduction (albeit in black and white) of "Poet's Pub" I have read this book, in whole, and in part, so often in the last year or so, that the spine is near broke. I rate it- a high five. We ride!

My wife read this book aloud to me and my two children during a driving tour of the Highlands last year. It completely changed my perspective on the landscape I was driving through and helped me understand how the Highlands have been ravaged by human hands from the Vikings onward. I saw the beautiful but desolate land in a completely different light. His portraits of historical personages obliterated the false and somewhat romantic image we have of the Highlands and left us with a more honest and ultimately more satisfying picture of the people. It is not a historical text and I don't think that's what he intended to write. It is, however, immensely readable, entertaining and the perfect book to accompany a drive through this magnificent country. I recently met two people planning a driving trip through the Highlands and recommended it without reservation, and I would do the same to anyone looking for an honest and enjoyable history of the Highlands and its people.

The Gaelic songs printed at the beginning of the chapters are the best feature of the book. One of the few ways to learn about the Highlands of Scotland is through the Gaelic songs and poems of its people.

Macleod?s understanding of Gaelic society is limited indeed.

Statements such as ?Even more oddly, they had no institution of marriage? show the gaps in his understanding of the early historical period in Scotland. Among the first manuscripts written in Gaelic were law texts, which included passages on marriage (Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law). As Irish scholars frequently use Scottish sources in their work, those who study Gaelic Scotland should read about Gaelic Ireland as well.

?The autonomy of the Celtic Church did not long survive. There was now a determined campaign from Roman bishops, in England and elsewhere, to make these brethren submit to papal authority ? Scotland was now bordered to its very gates, by Roman Catholicism ? Above all, they (the ?Celtic? Church) acknowledged no head of the Church save ?Our Lord; in this they anticipated post-reformation Presbyterianism.?

Macleod?s anti-Catholicism has interfered with his understanding of the development of Christianity. Western Christianity for the first millenium of its existence was a confederation of churches; there was a Gallican (later Frankish) Church, a British Church (Welsh-speaking), an English Church, a Coptic Church, a 'Celtic' Church (Gaelic-speaking), a Roman Church etc. The pope as bishop of Rome had little temporal power in this period. The Celtic Church wasn?t an early Protestant church as he insists, but one of many which recognized the spiritual authority of the pope. (Hughes, The Church in Early Irish Society / Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England / James Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons).

In the early 12th century David I granted land in Scotland to 1000 Anglo-Normans. Why the king ?thought in the English way? is better understood after reading Robert Bartlett?s ?The Making of Europe?. The impact of the introduction of feudalism to Gaelic Scotland is outlined in Grant and Cheape?s ?Periods in Highland History?.

Macleod makes generalizations such as ?Land was still worked by runrig, and this was a bad system.? Runrig was a communal method of farming marginal land which may be better understood by visiting Auchindrain(near Inverary, Scotland), a multiple-tenant farm until the 20th century and now a museum. The land was shared out and distributed and redistributed so that all shared good and bad land. This kind of farm, which supported a numerous tenantry (clansmen), ended with clearance from the interior of the Scottish Highlands and the creation of crowded crofting communities on the west coast whose major function was kelping (collection of seaweed for the chemical industry). When demand for kelp fell after the Napoleonic Wars and much of the ?surplus? population of the west coast was obliged to emigrate.

James Hunter?s ?Making of the Crofting Community? has not been superceded for an explanation of the changes to Gaelic society; that is, from the ?clan system? to the ?crofting community? and Allan MacInnes' "Clanship, Commerce and the House of Stuart 1603 - 1788" explains the changes already taking place in the earlier period.

?Though illiteracy was almost universal (in the Highlands)?? Illiteracy in the sixteenth century was high throughout Europe. Macleod ought to have described a unique class of educated Gaels, the poets (ollaimh, filidhean, is b?ird) who spoke a literary dialect of Gaelic common to Scotland and Ireland. For up to twenty years they studied the complicated rhyme schemes and the Gaelic myths and legends that shaped their art (Thomson, Introduction to Gaelic Poetry). The poets and musicians, particularly harpers, would go on a ?cuairt?, a journey to the houses of the gentry where they entertained the adults and acted as tutors to their children. Every chief worthy of the name had a collection of manuscripts including poems celebrating his family, for which they paid the learned men (Watson, Scottish Verse from the Book of the Dean of Lismore/? Baoill, Eachann Bacach and other MacLean Poets).

Macleod stereotypes people of German origin in an insulting way. ?He (the Duke of Cumberland) could not see the Highlanders as human at all; even his own soldiers were to him but fodder, to be advanced and moved and forfeited at his most German will. Cumberland was of that type who, two centuries later, in the name of order and racial hygiene, would cram Jews and Slavs and gypsies and homosexuals into the gas chambers?? The author seems to suggest that any German or person of German origin, who attains power over others, will turn into a Hitler.

About the Celtic languages he wrote, "The Celtic languages were already dividing from the P-Celtic root." P-Celtic (eg. Welsh) is not the parent of Q-Celtic (eg.Gaelic); Q-Celtic (Gaelic) is the more archaic form of the two language groups; that is, it resembles the parent Celtic language more than P-Celtic (Jackson, Language and History in Early Britain/Lockwood, Languages of the British Isles Past and Present).

Other readers have pointed out this author?s anti-Catholic bias and I have tried to point out some errors about language and history which render this book less worthwhile than others.

More books to consider instead:

Campbell, Orain nan Gaidheal (Songs of the Gael) bilingual
Devine, Clanship to Crofters? War
Lenman, The Jacobite Risings in Britain 1689 ? 1746
Munro, Highland Clans and Tartans
Shaw, The Northern and Western Islands of Scotland; Their Economy and Society in the 17th century

I won't wax lirical about this work as it does not need it. It is a popular history of the Highlands of Scotland and entertains easily - MacLeod's style is good. Essentially the book is in 3 or 4 sections. The first section deals with the Scots prior to the adventure of The Bruce and the victory over the english at BannockBurn - I especially enjoyed the information about the Celtic church - the original gaelic (Irish and Scots) church - which was not Roman Catholic in litergy or theology. The second period deals with the solidification of clan society within the ever increasing feudal influences of the south - Land for example used to belong to the whole Clan - not the Chief - until norman influence - brought in by The Bruce and others changed the society. The third period deals with the folly of the Stuarts and the twin outcomes of emerging captialism and english atrocities against Scots - in particular Highlanders. Macleod has written another book dealing with the whole stuart family and I recommend that to anyone. Now the track of the book changes and we are only half way through - the rest - or it seems to be the rest deals with the role of the church in Scotland - and to understand the Presbyterian Kirk is to understand Scotland. In order to do this Macleod retraces some of his previous chapters and now comments through the trained eyes of a Preachers Son - and he does a fine job of it as well. The maps are okay - the Gaelic comments throughout the book however could have be dealt with a glossary - the index is fine as well. All in all for an introduction to Scottish Highland culture you need to read a period of some 1500 years and in 350 pages of so you canna go past this tome. Aye we have long memories and hold great grudges !

The author does give a good background on the Highlands in general in the early part of the book, but his focus is really on Lewis/Harris for the most part. This is a very personal popular history. There are good points and bad in that. The reader gets in-depth information about some cultural/local things that are probably not covered as well anywhere else (ie the Presbyterian factions vying for control of the souls of Northern Islanders). If these kinds of things do not stir you, you may be a little disappointed. I found some of this interesting. I was particularly moved by the story of the wreck of the Iolaire. I don't suppose it is a story that one would run across anywhere else.

As a good introduction to some of the larger issues, it serves well. The first part of the book is a good review of the various peoples and cultures that made up the Highlands. The crofting culture and the Clearances are treated well and the reader is pointed toward authors who can go into these subjects in greater depth ( ie James Hunter).

One very frustrating (for me) habit of the author is to quote other sources (Paul Johnson, John Prebble) without citing the work it is taken from either in the body of the text, in notes or even in the bibliography.

The author admits that he has "a strong bias towards traditional Highland Presbyterianism, and a corresponding disdain for rites Roman and Anglican." Those who wince at Catholics being called "Papists" and Catholicism generally ignored or disparaged, might do well to look elsewhere. The author does not mention, even in passing, the Penal Laws against Catholics, whereby practicing Catholicism became a treasonable offense (the first offense meant confiscation of all property, the second, banishment and the third, death) are not mentioned at all. This pogrom against Catholics in the 17th and 18th centuries is why Evangelicals in the 19th century could come in to fill a religious vacuum.

I recommend this book, but would urge that it not be the only work you read on the Highlands. John Prebble's books are great reading. I have thoroughly enjoyed his accounts of Glencoe and Culloden. I continue to look for an overview of the Highlands and Islands that is more scholarly and balanced.

The author attempts too broad a sweep in this popular history. A glance at the rather slender bibliography indicates a strong religious bias; a more balanced view is required. There are the distortions typical of a single volume when complex events are condensed. The author would do well to consider Irish sources as Gaelic-speaking Scotland and Ireland were a single cultural entity for more than a millenium. To consider the history of one without the other results in an incomplete record and debatable conclusions.

This book covers over 1000 years of history in the Highlands region of Scotland. As is implied by the title, this is a people's history - there is no geological/natural history of the Highlands, except where the land has been used/altered by man. The first portions of the book are fascinating, detailing the early immigration to the west coast and islands of Scotland, the coming of missionaries, Vikings, the union of Scotland under one crown in Edinburgh, and, of course, the uprising led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Unfortunately, I found myself losing interest in the latter half of the book, with its heavy focus on church squabbling. While undoubtedly of importance in understanding the "Highlands Problem," it could have been dealt with in a more expedient manner, without the enumeration of every schism that occurred.

The title is perhaps mileading. It is, in fact, a history of the people in the Highlands (and those in England, Norway, etc. that directly affected the Highlanders). Therefore, the book focusses on the people of this area of Scotland, while essentially ignoring the history of the people who immigrated there in the first place (from Ireland, Scandenavia, etc.), or the people that emigrated (to Canada, Australia, etc.) from the Highlands in later years. The author even points out that early in the 1900's, there were four times the number of Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia than there were in the Highlands - surely some stories of these pioneers deserve treatment in the book titled "A History of the Gaels."

Finally, the maps are woefully inadequate. There are some political maps, but they do not include the locations of many of the towns mentioned in the narrative, and virtually none of the castles. Further, they are scattered throughout the book with no reference to them in the text, further adding to the difficulty in referencing them.

The strength of the book is certainly the readability. The first half is fantastic. The second half is only okay, as it seems to belabour certain issues to the point where the reader loses interest. It's certainly an adequate (and modern - published in 1997) entry for anyone interested in the history of the Highlands' peoples, with enough details to further educate those with a more intimate knowledge of the Highlands.

John MacLeod's "Highlanders: A History of the Gaels" is popular history with a bite and an edge. MacLeod, a journalist by trade and a longtime resident of the Highlands, narrates the story of the Highlands from the pre-history of the Picts, Celts, and Norsemen through the Scottish dynastic wars of Robert the Bruce, the romanticism of the Stuarts, to Union with England and on into modern times. The prose is stylish, frank and familar rather than scholarly. If the Hebrides get rather much emphasis because the author hails from there, the extra details may be worth the trip to many readers.

As MacLeod relates, the Highlands are a place of much natural beauty, limited economic potential, and often incredibly poor luck in its leaders. The reader is left with the impression of a hardy population saddled with one well-intentioned absentee laird or landlord after another. The periodic mass out-migrations are heart-breaking to read about, but undoubtedly saved many Highlanders from miserable lives working overcrowded, economically marginal land.

MacLeod devotes much time to the evolution of a distinctive Gaelic culture, with its effects on patterns of worship, language, and culture. This topic might have merited its own book; MacLeod does it some justice here.

"Highlanders: A History of the Gaels" is an excellent and readable introduction to the topic, and highly recommended to those planning a visit or frightened off by the heft of more scholarly works.

I found this book to be full of helpful and interesting facts and insights into a people I consider to be fascinating and inspiring.