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Robin Haines has analysed the origins, occupations, literacy, and mobilization of emigrants recruited in the UK on behalf of colonial legislatures. Her exploration of strict selection procedures shows that the symbiosis between the clergy, empire-minded philanthropic societies, and parishes, which combined to fund the emigrants' considerable pre-departure expenses, increased the opportunities for underemployed rural and domestic workers during an era of farm rationalization and industrial restructuring. Although poor, hybrid state and private funding enabled them to relocate to Australia where their skills were in demand.
The Great Hunger in nineteenth-century Ireland was a major human tragedy of modern times. Almost a million perished and a further two million emigrated in the wake of potato blight and economic collapse. Acute famine also gripped the Scottish Highlands at the same time, causing misery, hardship and distress. The story of that lesser known human disaster is told in this prize-winning and internationally acclaimed book. The author describes the classic themes of highland and Scottish history, including the clearances, landlordism, crofting life, emigration and migration in a subtle and intricate reconstruction based on a wide range of sources. This book should appeal to all those with an interest in Scottish history, the emigration of Scottish people and the Highland Clearances.
'A superb book ... Anybody interested in Scottish history needs to read it' Andrew Marr, Sunday Times Eighteenth-century Scotland is famed for generating many of the enlightened ideas which helped to shape the modern world. But there was in the same period another side to the history of the nation. Many of Scotland's people were subjected to coercive and sometimes violent change, as traditional ways of life were overturned by the 'rational' exploitation of land use. The Scottish Clearances is a superb and highly original account of this sometimes terrible process, which changed the Lowland countryside forever, as it also did, more infamously, the old society of the Highlands. Based on a vast...
Alistair Moffat tells the extraordinary story of the Highlands in the most detailed book ever written about this remarkable part of Scotland. This is the story of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as it has never been told before. From the formation of the landscape millions of years ago to the twenty-first century, it brings to life the events and the people who have shaped Highland history, from saints, sinners and outlaws to monarchs, clan chiefs and warriors. Highly readable and informative, it mines a wide range of sources including medieval manuscripts and sagas, poetry and popular culture. Picts, Romans, Irish missionaries, Vikings, Jacobites and the flood of emigrants who left to forge new lives abroad are just some of the important players in the drama. As he paints the bigger picture, Alistair Moffat also introduces many key aspects of Highland culture and explores the experience of ordinary Highlanders and Islanders over thousands of years.
Strathoykel, Sutherland. "When the Sheriff and his men arrived, the women were on the road and the men behind the walls. The women shouted 'Better to die here than America or the Cape of Good Hope'. The first blow was struck by a woman with a stick. The gentry leant out of their saddles and beat at the women's heads with their crops." (John McGrath)
"This is a highly descriptive account of the Scots in Australia from 1788 to the present. It shows that the Scots have made a major contribution to all aspects of Australian life. It is aimed at non-specialist general readers, although much of the audience will be Scottish."-- Provided by publisher.
From the abandoned crofts of Mingulay to the standing stones of Orkney, from the white beaches of Colonsay to the spectacular Cuillins of Skye, this is the first complete gazetteer to cover all of Scotland's many hundreds of islands, including both those which are uninhabited and those which are notoriously difficult to reach. Packed with information on access, anchorages, points of historical or natural interest, and things to see and do, this fascinating compendium provides indispensable information for touring, for browsing, for reference, and for all those travellers who wish to sail to some of the most beautiful and remote places in the world. No other book can begin to emulate the range and depth of the information contained in The Scottish Islands. This is an impressive work of reference, providing a fascinating personal view of Scotland's distant outposts. Guide, history, travelogue - it is essential reading for all who love Scotland.
Bestselling author Ken McGoogan tells the story of those courageous Scots who, ruthlessly evicted from their ancestral homelands, were sent to Canada in coffin ships, where they would battle hardship, hunger and even murderous persecution. After the Scottish Highlanders were decimated at the 1746 Battle of Culloden, the British government banned kilts and bagpipes and set out to destroy a clan system that for centuries had sustained a culture, a language and a unique way of life. The Clearances, or forcible evictions, began when landlords—among them traitorous clan chieftains—realized they could increase their incomes dramatically by driving out tenant farmers and dedicating their estate...
The tragedy of the Clearances, brought about by cynical, often absentee landlords, is a black page in Scotland's history. Written while the effects it describes were still unfolding, Mackenzie's history brings the distress before the reader.