The Scottish Clearances

A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900

By: T.M. Devine

Narrated by: Ruth Urquhart

Eighteenth-century Scotland is famed for generating many of the enlightened ideas which helped to shape the modern world. But there was in the same period another side to the history of the nation. Many of Scotland's people were subjected to coercive and sometimes violent change, as traditional ways of life were overturned by the "rational" exploitation of land use. The Scottish Clearances is a superb and highly original account of this sometimes terrible process, which changed the Lowland countryside forever, as it also did, more infamously, the old society of the Highlands.

This pioneering book is the first to chart this tumultuous saga in one volume, with due attention to evictions and loss of land in both north and south of the Highland line. In the process, old myths are exploded and familiar assumptions undermined. With many fascinating details and the sense of an epic human story, The Scottish Clearances is an evocative memorial to all whose lives were irreparably changed in the interests of economic efficiency.

This is a story of forced clearance, of the destruction of entire communities and of large-scale emigration. Some winners were able to adapt and exploit the new opportunities, but there were also others who lost everything. The clearances created the landscape of Scotland today, but it came at a huge price.

©2018 T.M. Devine (P)2021 Tantor

depth

Uist is mispronounced throughout, The depiction of Borders residents as Anglo-Saxons was bothersome but it made one think. Most people are not aware of anything but the Highland clearance if even that. it was presented clearly and faithful to the book.

Excellent discussion of the history of the clearances.

Detailed and well researched discussion of the Scottish Clearances and how and why it differed from region to region. Narrator is excellent.

Great Scottish narrator

This is a great study of a little known area of Scottish history. Everyone knows of the Highland Clearances but not that it also happened in the less romantically revered lowlands. Ruth Urquhart is a great narrator ( and a native Scot) This is a beautifully narrated and very interesting title.