Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland: Commemoration, Nationality and Memory
James ColemanAt a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland’s national heroes were once remembered as champions of both Scottish and British patriotism.
Whereas 19th-century Scotland is popularly depicted as a mire of sentimental Jacobitism and kow-towing unionism, this book shows how Scotland’s national heroes were once the embodiment of a consistent, expressive and robust view of Scottish nationality.
Whether celebrating the legacy of William Wallace and Robert Bruce, the reformer John Knox, the Covenanters, 19th-century Scots rooted their national heroes in a Presbyterian and unionist view of Scotland’s past.
Examined through the prism of commemoration, this book uncovers collective memories of Scotland’s past entirely opposed to 21st-century assumptions of medieval proto-nationalism and Calvinist misery.
Key Features
- Detailed studies of 19th-century commemoration of Scotland’s national heroes
- Uncovers an all but forgotten interpretation of these ‘great Scots’
- Shines a new light on the mindset of nineteenth-century Scottish national identity as being comfortably Scottish and British
- Overturns the prevailing view of Victorian Scottishness as parochial, sentimental tartanry