What do you think?
Rate this book
Scottish History for Dummies
Explore the fascinating history of Scotland in an easy-to-read guide Want to discover how a small country on the edge of Northern Europe packs an almighty historical punch? Scottish History For Dummies is your guide to the story of Scotland and its place within the historical narratives of Britain, Europe and the rest of the world. You'll find out how Scotland rose from the ashes to forge its own destiny, understand the impact of Scottish historical figures such as William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and David Hume and be introduced to the wonderful world of Celtic religion, architecture and monuments.History can help us make connections with people and events, and it gives us an understanding of why the world is like it is today. Scottish History For Dummies pulls back the curtain on how the story of Scotland has shaped the world far beyond its borders. From its turbulent past to the present day, this informative guide sheds a new and timely light on the story of Scotland and its people.Dig into a wealth of fascinating facts on the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages Get to know how Scotland was built into an industrial economy by inventors, explorers and missionaries Discover the impact of the world wars on Scotland and how the country has responded to challenges created by them Find up-to-the-minute information on Scotland's referendum on independence If you're a lifelong learner looking for a fun, factual exploration of the grand scope of Scotland or a traveler wanting to make the most of your trip to this captivating country, Scottish History For Dummies has you covered.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
106 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 4, 2015
A basic introduction...
At the risk of sounding obnoxiously conceited, I'm going to start by saying this book isn't really aimed at me. I have a pretty good knowledge and understanding of Scotland's history in general and a reasonably in-depth amateur knowledge of some periods in particular. However I was intrigued to see how the '...for Dummies' series would present history, having only used them in the past for more technical subjects, and I always find it's good to start with a subject you know something about to get a feel for the quality and accuracy of the series.
This book covers the entire human history of Scotland from the Stone Age to the current day in just over 300 pages. It is therefore to be expected that it's going to be a fairly quick romp and indeed it is. In fact, the first several sections irritated me quite a lot by their superficiality - not just the Stone Age, etc., but also the Romans, the Vikings and right on past the Bruce and Wallace era. The section on the Kings of Scotland between Bruce and the Union was a sprint - admittedly they did have a tendency to die young, but some of them only got a couple of pages. It's not that these sections lacked facts; but they did lack much interpretation and I didn't feel they were put into the context of the wider world particularly well. In this early part of the book, the author has also included lots of little jokey asides, often schoolboy humour about sexual mores, and he is a huge enthusiast for the exclamation mark!!!! I think there may be more exclamation marks in this book than in the whole of world literature put together!!!!
However, once we get to what we would think of as modern history - the last 300 years or so, the book becomes more in-depth with more analysis and a greater feeling of context. The 'About the Author' section tells us that this is the period in which Knox has done most of his work and I think that shows. Even here, though, there are some issues where I wondered if a reader would be left floundering for lack of information. For instance, the fueing system of land rents rates one sentence. I felt it would actually have been clearer to omit reference to it entirely than to explain it so inadequately, and there were many other examples like this. In general, however, these later sections give a much fuller picture of Scottish society and how it changed in response to the rise and fall of Empire and beyond.
The book is very much in the style of the '...for Dummies' series, using icons and bullet-point lists to highlight information the author considers important for the reader to remember. This works reasonably well, though sometimes it felt a bit patronising. What worked less well were the grammatical errors and typos - they didn't by any means make the book unreadable but there were too many of them in what is after all a scholarly work. Sometimes the lack of grammatical clarity led to errors in fact - for instance, on page 14 the author says Scotland was uninhabitable between the second century AD and the 13th century - a surprise, I imagine, to the people who lived there. What he meant was that it was uninhabitable for thousands of years at a much earlier period due to the Ice Age. The error is caused by a lack of clarity in the writing style, and again there are other examples of this. As so often, I found myself wondering if the editor had read the book.
I don't want to be too harsh on the book because it does provide a basic introduction to Scottish history and that's what it sets out to do. And certainly for modern history I felt it gave a good overview. But I felt the earlier sections were too superficial even as an introduction, there were too many areas that lacked clarity and as a result were confusing, and personally I disliked the author's jokey style. I was also disappointed to see that there's no bibliography included, so anyone wishing to read further is given no guidance on where to look next. So in conclusion I fear I can only give a lukewarm recommendation to this one overall, though I'd recommend it more strongly to someone who was primarily interested in the sections on modern history.
NB This book was provided for review by Amazon Vine UK.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
At the risk of sounding obnoxiously conceited, I'm going to start by saying this book isn't really aimed at me. I have a pretty good knowledge and understanding of Scotland's history in general and a reasonably in-depth amateur knowledge of some periods in particular. However I was intrigued to see how the '...for Dummies' series would present history, having only used them in the past for more technical subjects, and I always find it's good to start with a subject you know something about to get a feel for the quality and accuracy of the series.
This book covers the entire human history of Scotland from the Stone Age to the current day in just over 300 pages. It is therefore to be expected that it's going to be a fairly quick romp and indeed it is. In fact, the first several sections irritated me quite a lot by their superficiality - not just the Stone Age, etc., but also the Romans, the Vikings and right on past the Bruce and Wallace era. The section on the Kings of Scotland between Bruce and the Union was a sprint - admittedly they did have a tendency to die young, but some of them only got a couple of pages. It's not that these sections lacked facts; but they did lack much interpretation and I didn't feel they were put into the context of the wider world particularly well. In this early part of the book, the author has also included lots of little jokey asides, often schoolboy humour about sexual mores, and he is a huge enthusiast for the exclamation mark!!!! I think there may be more exclamation marks in this book than in the whole of world literature put together!!!!
However, once we get to what we would think of as modern history - the last 300 years or so, the book becomes more in-depth with more analysis and a greater feeling of context. The 'About the Author' section tells us that this is the period in which Knox has done most of his work and I think that shows. Even here, though, there are some issues where I wondered if a reader would be left floundering for lack of information. For instance, the fueing system of land rents rates one sentence. I felt it would actually have been clearer to omit reference to it entirely than to explain it so inadequately, and there were many other examples like this. In general, however, these later sections give a much fuller picture of Scottish society and how it changed in response to the rise and fall of Empire and beyond.
The book is very much in the style of the '...for Dummies' series, using icons and bullet-point lists to highlight information the author considers important for the reader to remember. This works reasonably well, though sometimes it felt a bit patronising. What worked less well were the grammatical errors and typos - they didn't by any means make the book unreadable but there were too many of them in what is after all a scholarly work. Sometimes the lack of grammatical clarity led to errors in fact - for instance, on page 14 the author says Scotland was uninhabitable between the second century AD and the 13th century - a surprise, I imagine, to the people who lived there. What he meant was that it was uninhabitable for thousands of years at a much earlier period due to the Ice Age. The error is caused by a lack of clarity in the writing style, and again there are other examples of this. As so often, I found myself wondering if the editor had read the book.
I don't want to be too harsh on the book because it does provide a basic introduction to Scottish history and that's what it sets out to do. And certainly for modern history I felt it gave a good overview. But I felt the earlier sections were too superficial even as an introduction, there were too many areas that lacked clarity and as a result were confusing, and personally I disliked the author's jokey style. I was also disappointed to see that there's no bibliography included, so anyone wishing to read further is given no guidance on where to look next. So in conclusion I fear I can only give a lukewarm recommendation to this one overall, though I'd recommend it more strongly to someone who was primarily interested in the sections on modern history.
NB This book was provided for review by Amazon Vine UK.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
September 29, 2014
As a keen student of Scottish history and an admirer of the Dummies books I was looking forward to reading this offering. But I am left disappointed.
The scope of Dr Knox's work is admirable: covering, as advertised, "from the Stone Age to today". Alas the humorous tone of Dummies is lacking, but perhaps the plethora of exclamation marks to indicate where the reader should be chuckling put me off. Parenthesis is much in evidence too, e.g. "Mary was an attractive, tall (nearly 183 centimetres [6 feet]!)..."
More troubling though are the factual errors. For instance, the introduction tells us on page 1 that "Scotland has been a unitary state since 1470", but seven pages later 1460 is quoted as the date when Norway ceded the Northern Isles. (In fact it was 1468). Agricola we are told was the son-in-law of Tacitus rather than the father-in-law. On page 103 we are told (correctly) that James II died in 1460; but by page 114 this becomes 1451. And then there's the repeated references to coronation rather than royal inauguration and the addition of "for Scotland" to the office of secretary of state.
I suspect these errors are indicative of poor editing rather than scholarship as the indexing of the book leaves much to be desired as well.
It's not all bad though. The final section giving ten places to visit, ten little-known people and ten Scottish inventions was very enjoyable.
The scope of Dr Knox's work is admirable: covering, as advertised, "from the Stone Age to today". Alas the humorous tone of Dummies is lacking, but perhaps the plethora of exclamation marks to indicate where the reader should be chuckling put me off. Parenthesis is much in evidence too, e.g. "Mary was an attractive, tall (nearly 183 centimetres [6 feet]!)..."
More troubling though are the factual errors. For instance, the introduction tells us on page 1 that "Scotland has been a unitary state since 1470", but seven pages later 1460 is quoted as the date when Norway ceded the Northern Isles. (In fact it was 1468). Agricola we are told was the son-in-law of Tacitus rather than the father-in-law. On page 103 we are told (correctly) that James II died in 1460; but by page 114 this becomes 1451. And then there's the repeated references to coronation rather than royal inauguration and the addition of "for Scotland" to the office of secretary of state.
I suspect these errors are indicative of poor editing rather than scholarship as the indexing of the book leaves much to be desired as well.
It's not all bad though. The final section giving ten places to visit, ten little-known people and ten Scottish inventions was very enjoyable.
December 20, 2023
My main takeaway from this complete guide to Scottish history (for dummies) is that, despite what some seem to believe, there was NEVER any glorious, idyllic period where everyone in Scotland was free and happy. For most of history most people in Scotland had hard, impoverished, miserable lives most of the time; powerless, penniless and open to exploitation.
Dr Knox is a specialist in social history and he writes with most detail and authority about the living and working conditions of more recent Scottish history, along with the politics of the time. Earlier periods are covered in less detail, whole centuries fly by in a couple of paragraphs, but I guess this is as good an introduction to the outline of Scottish history as any.
The narrator of the audiobook should really learn how to pronounce Scottish place names, however. Until I listened to this I didn't even realise there was a WRONG way to pronounce simple names like "Penicuik" or "Dunfermline". At first, I put this down to him being English, but then he clearly doesn't know how to pronounce English place names like "Shrewsbury" or "Alnwick", either.
Strangely, however, the narrator does pronounce "Scone" correctly. Maybe someone had a word about that one? Or maybe he remembered it from studying Macbeth? But, then again, he can't pronounce "Glamis" and that was in Macbeth too...
Dr Knox is a specialist in social history and he writes with most detail and authority about the living and working conditions of more recent Scottish history, along with the politics of the time. Earlier periods are covered in less detail, whole centuries fly by in a couple of paragraphs, but I guess this is as good an introduction to the outline of Scottish history as any.
The narrator of the audiobook should really learn how to pronounce Scottish place names, however. Until I listened to this I didn't even realise there was a WRONG way to pronounce simple names like "Penicuik" or "Dunfermline". At first, I put this down to him being English, but then he clearly doesn't know how to pronounce English place names like "Shrewsbury" or "Alnwick", either.
Strangely, however, the narrator does pronounce "Scone" correctly. Maybe someone had a word about that one? Or maybe he remembered it from studying Macbeth? But, then again, he can't pronounce "Glamis" and that was in Macbeth too...
May 19, 2015
If you studied Scottish history in school and want to brush up on some key dates and points, I highly recommend this book. However, if you are new to the subject and want a good introduction to Scottish history, this book will be a meaningless list of names and dates.
February 6, 2017
Another great selection in the "For Dummies" series. Scotland has a wonderful and fascinating history and this was a great read.
April 13, 2019
I’ve not been able to read many books on Scottish history but this one! This was well written and very easy to understand for me!
May 20, 2019
I'm about to visit Scotland and wanted some basic information about it's history. I do not have any prior knowledge and thought this was would be a good book to start with but I'm just going to copy-and-paste what Anna C wrote (as she wrote exactly what I think about the book):
"If you studied Scottish history in school and want to brush up on some key dates and points, I highly recommend this book. However, if you are new to the subject and want a good introduction to Scottish history, this book will be a meaningless list of names and dates."
"If you studied Scottish history in school and want to brush up on some key dates and points, I highly recommend this book. However, if you are new to the subject and want a good introduction to Scottish history, this book will be a meaningless list of names and dates."
December 11, 2022
In preparation for a 2023 British Isles tour, I realized I knew little of Scotland's history. This book gave me a good, easy to read coverage from independence to part of the UK to possible independence again after Brexit. Dang, those English and Scots were brutal in their revenge. Lots of hangings, beheadings, and burnings at the stake, but England's most grievace was dragging William Wallace (Braveheart) naked by cart, then emasculating, disemboweling, hanging, and beheading him.
December 17, 2019
A bit dense at times...It was surprisingly comprehensive and it certainly communicated the turbulent history of Scotland. There was a lot of info I didn't really need to know, but also in between, the nuggets I hoped to find here. I don't regret reading the book, but it was a bit of a slog.
November 9, 2020
This book helped me learn about my heritage. I found it overall an enjoyable read. My favorite part were learning about the medieval wars.
December 21, 2020
A fine survey of Scottish history, covering the high points and with some interesting tidbits about the Scots. Well worth reading.
February 8, 2023
A nice overview that will leave anyone with more than a cursory interest ready to dive into some deeper histories.
September 21, 2024
I normally wouldn't have picked up a book with a title like this but it was free to listen to via Audible. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a good overview.
June 3, 2025
content was useful and interesting.
but I listened to the audiobook and the pronunciation of places, people and even ordinary words were so frequently mangled it was not an enjoyable experience.
but I listened to the audiobook and the pronunciation of places, people and even ordinary words were so frequently mangled it was not an enjoyable experience.
July 11, 2022
This book fell into the trap that many historians succumb to: a book that is not much more than a list of dates and happenings on particular dates. Knox, at least as far as I got, could not construct a narrative out of Scottish history. There were no broader themes, it was all just a parade of facts.
Read 29%.
Read 29%.
September 12, 2019
A lot more fun than I thought it would be
I had never read a "For Dummies" book before, I might try more after this. Yes it's educational that's a given, but how insightful it is was a surprise. This even opened my eyes to a few (non-Scottish) historical facts That I'd been wondering about all my life. This book helped me place current events into a larger historical context, and answered many examples of "what's the big deal about that?".
The most surprising thing I learned from this book is that only one group of people have been more horrible to the Scottish than the English, and I should have see that one coming a mile away.
I had never read a "For Dummies" book before, I might try more after this. Yes it's educational that's a given, but how insightful it is was a surprise. This even opened my eyes to a few (non-Scottish) historical facts That I'd been wondering about all my life. This book helped me place current events into a larger historical context, and answered many examples of "what's the big deal about that?".
The most surprising thing I learned from this book is that only one group of people have been more horrible to the Scottish than the English, and I should have see that one coming a mile away.
December 31, 2022
This book was dense but I’m glad I read it
March 29, 2017
I recommend this book if you need a good overview of Scottish History, or are planning a trip. It can also simply be used as a a reference book. It's very versatile and user-friendly. You don't have to get bogged down into details if you are not interested. There are also supplementary web-based links if you want to take a deeper dive into something.
I've used "Dummies" books for other topics and always find them helpful. I don't know what that says about me but, I do like them.
I've used "Dummies" books for other topics and always find them helpful. I don't know what that says about me but, I do like them.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews