Reflections on Tom Devine's The Scottish Nation

Professor Richard Finlay of Strathclyde University said the book was a landmark as it coincided with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and was “symbolic of a greater interest in Scottish history and culture that was happening at that time”.

“It was the first readable history of the modern era that managed to get a lot of the up-to-date scholarship out to a wider public and it still remains the standard textbook for the post-Union period to this day,” he said.

“Its real success was to bridge the gap between academia and give the Scottish public a history of their own country that matched the mood of the nation at that time that wanted to know about its past.

“It certainly helped with national self-esteem and avoided the ‘here’s tae us mentality’. It was an unapologetic history of Scotland and that was a refreshing change.”

Professor David Armitage of Harvard University added: “It’s often said that national identities shape history, but occasionally histories can form national identity. Tom Devine’s The Scottish Nation is one of those rare books: its long-range, wide-ranging, democratic narrative of Scotland’s past has done more to expand historical consciousness in – and of – Scotland than any other modern work.”

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Professor Angela McCarthy of Otago University, New Zealand, said she had been “swept away” by the book’s “superb” overview of Scotland’s past and had made it the set text for her undergraduate Scottish history class because of its “rigorous research, succinct writing and penetrating analysis in busting myths”.

“Although first published 21 years ago, The Scottish Nation has stood the test of time and remains the ‘go-to’ book for anyone wishing to learn about modern Scottish history and its relationship with England and the world,” she said. “That the book has ongoing significance is due in part to the dearth of transformative research on the nation’s domestic past during the last decade or so.”

Author and journalist Rosemary Goring said the book’s importance as a “pivotal publication” was clear from the start.

“There was a scramble for those who claimed to be abreast of culture and politics to show they had read it,” she said. “Even now, you often see it on the bookshelves of serious politicians and commentators when they’re on Zoom.

“Appearing in the year the Scottish Parliament was reconvened, its timing was perfect. Perhaps the appetite for self-knowledge and understanding was greater at this point because of the political atmosphere; but given the years of research upon which Devine drew, it could be argued that the rise in forensic historical inquiry, which the Scottish Nation exemplifies, was one of the galvanising forces behind devolution, and beyond.

“Since then it has cemented its place as a keystone in the endeavour to recalibrate the past, and its influence has been reinforced by Professor Devine’s emergence as a public intellectual, championing Scottish history at every opportunity. He has gone on to illuminate other neglected areas, such as the slave trade and the lowland clearances, but this single volume encapsulation of the nation’s unfurling remains an academic landmark. Its immense achievement is to be both ground-breaking and, because it is so well written, hugely enjoyable.”

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Scots journalist and writer Neal Ascherson said: “A nation without a serious but popular and readable book of its own history is holed below the waterline. Tom Devine’s The Scottish Nation plugged that hole. It came at a time when Scottish history teaching in schools was draining away – probably better and more widely taught in the 1920s than in the 1960s.

“Having said that, he couldn’t have written it if there hadn’t been a decade of original and highly scholarly works into neglected sections of Scotland’s past. He brought them together and made a narrative exciting and accessible to any active mind.

“It should also be said that his unflagging radicalism – sympathy with the hardships and struggles of ordinary people – shapes the whole book.”

Professor Geraldine Vaughan of Rouen University in France said: “The great French historian Marc Bloch, founder of the Annales School, wrote in The Historian’s Craft that the highest quality for a writer was ‘to speak in the same tone to pundits and schoolchildren alike’.

“Sir Tom Devine’s best-selling opus The Scottish Nation belongs to that category of writing – accessible to all without ever forsaking the highest level of historical inquiry.

“In a way, this book epitomises Tom Devine’s career as an historian, for he carefully knit a pattern for Scottish history – making sense of a distinct Scottish path within the British Isles and Empire.

“In doing so, he has always been true to the Annales tradition, writing a history that encompasses all aspects of Scotland’s past – its politics, economics, society and religion.”

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Dr Martin Mitchell, of Strathclyde University, said there had been a great need for a book like The Scottish Nation as public interest in Scottish history had grown, partly as a result of the changing political scene in the country.

“Therefore by the time of the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 there was a great appetite throughout Scotland for a scholarly account of the history, progress and development of the nation since the Union with England in 1707,” he said.

“The Scottish Nation satisfied that demand, as the sales of the book at the time demonstrated; and the fact that over 20 years since its publication the book is still selling well is testament both to the enduring quality of its scholarship, and to the continuing desire of the public for a history of Modern Scotland that they can trust.”

Publications director at Penguin, Simon Winder, said the book appeared to have had a “transformative” role in Scotland.

“It is astonishing to think how many households have a copy and how many times the book will have been taken out of libraries or shared or passed on second-hand. Every now and then a book can capture a national mood.”