| From The Publisher* | Scotland's history in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries continues to get a bad press. Popular books and television programmes portray this period as one defined by economic stagnation, religious fanaticism, and cultural backwardness. These assumptions help to reinforce the idea, commonplace amongst the British governing and media establishments, that the loss of Scotland's political autonomy through incorporating union with England in 1707 was the necessary price to be paid for stability and prosperity. Although scholars no longer see Scotland's journey from sovereign kingdom to provincial status within a global Anglo-Britannic empire in these terms, there is limited public awareness of alternative views. Union, Revolution and War provides a provocative but accessible new account of a contentious and highly volatile period in both Scottish and British history. Although Scotland's political, economic, and diplomatic affairs were undeniably dominated by the relationship with England, Scottish society and culture remained distinctive. The seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries cannot be characterised simply as a story of Scottish assimilation into an Anglo-Britannic state. |
| From The Publisher* | A provocative new account of Scotland's history across a century of revolution and political instability |
| Biographical Note | Laura Stewart is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern British History at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research is focussed on Scotland and Britain in the seventeenth century and she has published widely on many aspects of Scottish political and religious culture. She is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (Scotland), the Royal Historical Society, and the Higher Education Academy, co-convener of the seminar for British History in the Seventeenth Century at the Institute of Historical Research in London, a member of the Scottish Medievalists, and a representative on the Royal Historical Society's advisory panel for the Bibliography of British and Irish History. |
