Over the last three decades major advances in research and scholarship have transformed understanding of the Scottish past. In this landmark study some of the most eminent writers on the subject, together with emerging new talents, have combined to produce a large-scale volume which reconsiders in fresh and illuminating ways the classic themes of the nation's history since the sixteenth century as well as a number of new topics which are only now receiving detailed attention. Such major themes as the Reformation, the Union of 1707, the Scottish Enlightenment, Clearances, Industrialisation, Empire, Emigration, and the Great War are approached from novel and fascinating perspectives, but so too are such issues as the Scottish environment, myth, family, criminality, the literary tradition, and Scotland's contemporary history. All chapters contain expert syntheses of current knowledge, but their authors also stand back and reflect critically on the questions which still remain
unanswered, the issues which generate dispute and controversy, and sketch out where appropriate the agenda for future research.

The Handbook also places the Scottish experience firmly in an international historical experience with a considerable focus on the age-old emigration of the Scottish people, the impact of successive waves of immigrants to Scotland, and the nation's key role within the British Empire. The overall result is a vibrant and stimulating review of modern Scottish history - essential reading for students and scholars alike.

About the Author:
T. M. Devine previously held the Glucksman Research Chair in Irish-Scottish Studies, was Director of the AHRC Centre in Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen, and was Deputy Principal of the University of Strathclyde. He holds Honorary Professorships at the Universities of North Carolina and Guelph, and has won all three major prizes for Scottish historical research. He is Fellow of the British Academy and Royal Society of Edinburgh, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He was appointed OBE for services to Scottish History (2005) and awarded Scotland's supreme academic accolade, the Royal Gold Medal, by HM the Queen on the recommendation of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2001.

Jenny Wormald was previously C.E. Hodge Fellow in History at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She was a British Academy Reader in the Humanities and has held Visiting Professorships at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and the University of the South, Sewanee, and Research Fellowships at the Shakespeare Folger Library, Washington, DC, and the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries (Scotland), and the Royal Society for the Arts.