Discover Scotland's History - Reviews & Comments
Author :
A. D. Cameron
Category:
Children's
'Now reissued in paperback, this compact and readable account of our past covers events from prehistoric times up to the 1990s. Maps, photographs, drawings, plans and paintings are included throughout.'
The Scots Magazine |
'This is a very workman like approach to the entire national history of Scotland, and the abridgements are of course necessary in view of the sheer volume of subject treated. Forty-five short chapters provide adequately for a year’s course or more in history, and it can be expanded or contracted in accordance with the teacher’s perception of the pupils’ progress. The book started as History for Young Scots in the 1960’s and the slight refocusing of the new title has not meant that the author eschews examples drawn from outside Scotland where that is required to give a coherent picture of developments at a given time. The effect is to disabuse those who believe that Scotland has developed in entire isolation from the rest of the world Instead of a series of questions that used to end each chapter in this kind of book in the past, we find suggestions for visits, reflecting the increasing taste for ‘theme-parkisation’ in our national museums and historic sites – and the decreasing popularity of written work, especially homework. The same theme-park approach is evident in the chapters themselves, where we are suddenly swept into historical drama and dialogue e.g. in our encounter with the Parson of Stobo or the cloth merchant Spottiswood in the chapter on People in the Sixteenth Century. The writing of these mini-dramas is rather better, be it said, than many other recent essays of the same kind.
...Generally speaking, the treatment given to the entire sweep of history from Macbeth to the present day is very thorough and casts new light on the development of Scotland, even for the experienced reader.'
Books in Scotland |
'The author is well known and respected among Scottish history teachers for his previous texts, and he tells the story of Scotland from the early Stone Age people who came from south west Europe around 3700BC up to the political, industrial and social changes which are taking place at the present day. The book is written in a very readable, quite informal style, and the author combines serious history with vivid description and imaginative speculation as to what life must have been like in previous times.
The book will be useful for students of Scottish history in the senior school. It would also give a good background for the general reader, or for someone who wishes to visit or tour the country: and would be a useful addition to any public or school library.'
The School Librarian |
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