Scots without Scotland

Reviewed here

Scotland: The Global History, 1603 to the Present

by Murray Pittock

Yale University Press (RRP: £25)

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The title of Murray Pittock’s excellent new work of global history might simply read “Scotland,” but really it is as much a fascinating study of the Union as it is of Scotland’s evolving place in the world. This is especially so given how much of the world Scotland saw through the lens of the Union and how much it subsequently shaped in its name.

Seemingly on the make since time immemorial, Scots were well accustomed to the idea of operating outwith their state long before the union of its parliament with England’s in 1707. In the 17th century—an era when monarchs played…