book how the scots invented the modern world

David Hume speculated: 'Why is it when we have lost parliament and monarchy and independent government, speak uneasily in a foreign tongue but yet are the People most distinguished for literature in Europe?' Voltaire agreed, contending, 'It is to Scotland that we must look for our idea of civilisation.'

The upper echelons of Scottish society refused to be intimidated by English cultural and linguistic dominance. Scots ended up with peace and order from a strong British state, but as England took little interest in affairs north of the border, retained the freedom to develop and innovate. Living on the periphery of the UK had its advantages. By 1790 Edinburgh boasted 16 publishing houses. The knock-on effects of the education act were felt in universities and the book trade.

At 16, the poverty-stricken Ayrshire ploughman was versed in Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Locke, the Scottish poets and the French Enlightenment philosophers. The dichotomy between authoritarian repression and liberal inquiry in Scottish society was embodied in Robert Burns. The effect of this was that by 1750, with an estimated 75% level of literacy, the Scots were probably the most well-read nation on earth. Paradoxically, though, in the very same year as Aikenhead's execution, the Scottish parliament passed the Setting for Schools Act, establishing a school and salaried teacher in every parish. Yes, Scottish Presbyterians could behave like ayatollahs and the Kirk could, as in the infamous Aikenhead case of 1696, regularly incite public executions for spurious blasphemy or witchcraft charges. The Presbyterians popularised the notion that political power, though ordained by God, was vested not in the monarch or even in the clergy, but in the people.

The springboard for this was the most powerful legacy of the Presbyterian revolution: a universal (or near-universal) education system. And through innovations in philosophy, education, commerce, engineering, industry, architecture, town planning, soldiering, administration, medicine and even tourism, the Scots invented the modern world of capitalist democracy. But rather than suffer the expected dilution into insignificance, Scotland became proportionately the most significant player in the union's empire. The Earl of Roseberry was paid £12,000 from a slush fund operated by the London government to enable this merger to take place. Three consecutive failed harvests at the end of the 17th century, against the backdrop of England's imperial growth, set the circumstances for Scotland's ruling classes to sell out its sovereignty - literally. The Knoxian revolution of the 16th century had resulted in 100 years of almost uninterrupted violence and bloodshed.

Book how the scots invented the modern world