Customer Reviews

Periods in Highland History

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm touring Scotland this summer. The typical American searching for his roots in the land of his forefathers.
I thought to learn about the history of the country and came across this book. It is an historical overview of periods in the Highlands of Scotland beginning before the eleventh century through the 19th & 20th centuries. A book consisting of 300 pages cannot cover all aspects and details of Highland history. However, after finishing the book the reader will definitely have a better historical understanding of the Highlands and Lowlands.
Famous Highlands history as military prowess, clans, hunting, piping, tartans, dress, are discussed along with other topics such as literature, poetry and farming. The Celtic connection with Ireland is also featured.
A weakness of the book is a lack of maps. Many towns and areas of the Highlands and rest of the country are mentioned and the few maps provided make locating some of these places hard to figure for someone not familiar with the country. This is the reason I rate the book 4 stars instead of 5. However, I recommend this book for a beginning understanding of the history of the Highlands of Scotland. This book is scholarly written and includes references beneficial for historians.

The book was written by people sympathetic to the region. The mix of history, myth and folklore is refreshing; Gaelic sources were used where possible. Normally books about Scotland deal with the south, the political centre since the fifteenth century and the Highlands are a footnote or a chapter at the back. I recommend it highly.

This book is very dense. It contains an enormous amount of history condensed (packed) - into 288 pages. It is difficult and tedious to read. Some paragraphs run on for a page and a half.

It is well researched and lists 10 pages of references. It is not well indexed ( 6 pages ).

It's greatest weakness is that it is very dry and poorly organized. It is organized in to "periods" but the periods are very long and within the periods there is no organization at all.

Its strength is that it is cheap and if you can get through it, you will learn a lot. If you can't get through it, you will have a great reading list for your own research.