![Caledonian chronicle](https://cdn.magzter.com/1422873872/1659597855/articles/b5PvRsHcZ1660112718700/CALEDONIAN-CHRONICLE.jpg)
While Scotland has existed, geographically, in roughly its present form for half a millennium, the small nation has adapted to huge political, economic and social transformations, from union and devolution to mass migration, industrialisation and deindustrialisation. It is rarely out of the British headlines these days, thanks to the prospect of another referendum on independence from the UK.
Interest in Scottish history, too, has never been stronger, fuelled by a dramatic rise in the number and quality of academic publications along with the modern popular histories that have been enriched by them. No longer parochial in outlook, historians of Scotland produce work explaining why its past matters, in terms that not only integrate research into global currents of scholarship, but also lead the way. Demand for one-stop accounts of Scotland's past and present has surged, and this book is one of many to meet this need.
Scotland: The Global History, 1603 to the Present
by Murray Pittock Yale, 512 pages, £25
The author is a professor of English literature as well as a historian. His original research is grounded largely in the 18th century, especially the Jacobites, though he has produced creditable work on Romanticism and on national identity. His discussion of Scotland's languages in this book is sure-footed, though beyond that the background research is eclectic, sometimes eccentric. And even when cheerleading the Jacobites, to whose manifestly lost cause Pittock is a modern-day adherent, the treatment is episodic and allusive.
This story is from the September 2022 edition of BBC History UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September 2022 edition of BBC History UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
!["It had been a tiny triumph, but it had been a British triumph"](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/8opIdMhdd1717680864049/IT-HAD-BEEN-A-TINY-TRIUMPH-BUT-IT-HAD-BEEN-A-BRITISH-TRIUMPH.jpg)
"It had been a tiny triumph, but it had been a British triumph"
MAX HASTINGS talks to Rob Attar about a daring airborne raid that provided a much-needed boost to Britain's morale in the darkest days of the Second World War
![Dancing with the Devil](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/z3tczrcbD1717680698593/DANCING-WITH-THE-DEVIL.jpg)
Dancing with the Devil
ROGER MOORHOUSE is impressed by a book that traces the fortunes of the diplomats charged with managing the west's wartime alliance with Josef Stalin
![Victorian cucumber ice cream](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/XihiPLmM11717680253090/VICTORIAN-CUCUMBER-ICE-CREAM.jpg)
Victorian cucumber ice cream
ELEANOR BARNETT samples the delights of an unusual and refreshing version of one of the world's favourite summer treats
![Anne Boleyn, ‘princess' of France](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/FN-z5WT8v1717680017211/ANNE-BOLEYN-PRINCESS-OF-FRANCE.jpg)
Anne Boleyn, ‘princess' of France
JOANNE PAUL is impressed by an account of how the Tudor queen's continental connections shaped her meteoric rise and dramatic fall
![FIVE THINGS YOU (PROBABLY) DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT...Roman Britain](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/2Rmu-B6bk1717679721651/FIVE-THINGS-YOU-PROBABLY-DIDNT-KNOW-ABOUTROMAN-BRITAIN.jpg)
FIVE THINGS YOU (PROBABLY) DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT...Roman Britain
Rob Collins, who is teaching our new HistoryExtra Academy course, shares five surprising facts about life in Britain during the Roman occupation
![War and pieces](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/j0-whLbkb1717679070748/WAR-AND-PIECES.jpg)
War and pieces
Far from idle pursuits, games have transformed the way societies have made sense of life and death, order and conflict for centuries. Kelly Clancy picks five examples that reveal how playtime has often been a serious business
![Gulbadan Begum The Mughal Jane Austen](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/PF1DtMyfw1717678792372/GULBADAN-BEGUM-THE-MUGHAL-JANE-AUSTEN.jpg)
Gulbadan Begum The Mughal Jane Austen
Gulbadan Begum was meant to live a quiet life in the confines of a Mughal harem. Instead she made her mark on history twice: first, embarking on a pioneering pilgrimage to Islam’s holy cities; second, writing a remarkable history of her dynasty. RUBY LAL tells her story
![Succession 1603](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/_ZQ6raIkd1717678256662/SUCCESSION-1603.jpg)
Succession 1603
The passing of the English crown from Elizabeth I to James VI & I was welcomed by a nation hungry for change. But, writes Susan Doran, it wasn't long before tensions began to rise between the incoming king and his new subjects
![Horror in France](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/sK1_OhLUO1717677733111/HORROR-IN-FRANCE.jpg)
Horror in France
On the morning of 10 June 1944, the residents of Oradour-sur-Glane were going about their lives as normally as was possible in occupied France: cooking, washing, shopping, playing. Little did they know that they were about to become the victims of one of the most infamous massacres of the Second World War.
!["IT'S TIME TO WRITE WOMEN BACK INTO THESE WORLD-CHANGING ANCIENT EVENTS"](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8837/1724277/6FQpECvQ51717677224816/ITS-TIME-TO-WRITE-WOMEN-BACK-INTO-THESE-WORLDCHANGING-ANCIENT-EVENTS.jpg)
"IT'S TIME TO WRITE WOMEN BACK INTO THESE WORLD-CHANGING ANCIENT EVENTS"
Daisy Dunn tells the story of the Greco-Persian Wars through the deeds of the extraordinary female figures who shaped them