The Myth of the Jacobite Clans was first published in 1995: a revolutionary book, it argued that British history had long sought to caricature Jacobitism rather than to understand it, and that the Jacobite Risings drew on extensive Lowland support and had a national quality within Scotland. The Times Higher Education Supplement hailed its author's 'formidable talents' and the book and its ideas fuelled discussions in The Economist and Scotland on Sunday, on Radio Scotland and elsewhere. The argument of the book has been widely accepted, although it is still ignored by media and heritage representations which seek to depoliticise the Rising of 1745.Now entirely rewritten with extensive new primary research, this new expanded second edition addresses the questions of the first in more detail, examining the systematic misrepresentation of Jacobitism, the impressive size of the Jacobite armies, their training and organization and the Jacobite goal of dissolving the Union, and bringing to life the ordinary Scots who formed the core of Jacobite support in the ill-fated Rising of 1745. Now, more than ever, The Myth of the Jacobite Clans sounds the call for an end to the dismissive sneers and pointless romanticisation which have dogged the history of the subject in Scotland for 200 years.
About the Author:

Murray Pittock is Bradley Professor at the University of Glasgow, Pro Vice-Principal and Honorary Scottish History Adviser to the National Trust for Scotland. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Historical Society and the English Association and a prize lecturer of both the RSE and the British Academy.He has held senior appointments at the universities of Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Manchester, and visiting appointments in history and literature globally at universities including Yale, Trinity College, Dublin, New York University and Charles University, Prague. Recent publications include The Scots Musical Museum (2 vols, 2018); Culloden (2016) and Material Culture and Sedition (2013). His current projects include The Collected Works of Allan Ramsay (funded by the AHRC, 2018-23), The Scottish Heritage Partnership (on VR and Immersive design and procurement, funded by EPSRC-AHRC) and Robert Burns and the Scottish Economy (funded by Scottish Government).