Customer Reviews

The New Penguin History of Scotland: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day

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True, if you want a breezy tour guide you should look elsewhere. But if you're looking for up to date scholarly information on the history of Scotland, this is an excellent general collection. Highly recommended as a thorough overview, or as a starting place for more in-depth research.

This book provides an account of thematic history of Scotland. It is very disjointed, hard to follow and downright boring at times. I am a big fan of the Oxford History series for their scholarly level but wanted to save some money so I bought this one instead. It was a big mistake. While this is academic it is so poorly edited that you cannot focus on anything. Most of the articles and sections focus on the social, religious and cultural history but they are not tied in from chapter to chapter. There is almost no focus on military affairs and the parts that focus on the royalty do not provide a context. Stay with Oxford this one is not worth the money.

I bought this book because i will be visiting Scotland next year.Altough i dont like the Penguin History Books i decided to gave it try.Boy, what an awful and dry book.This book has several problems.BUt the one that bothered me the most was that is just to dry.I mean you just dont enjoy reading this book because the authors are just too academic.They try to cover a lot of areas that dont need covering.And the way they describe things and places and events is just plain and without life.The book was written for college profesors that dont want to go on field trips.You dont get anything out of this book and i found myself reading faster on some areas to get to parts that were most interesting but the more i read the more disappointed i got.I had to throw the book away cause i couldnt finish it.Save your money!