Kate Williams explains the basis of the rivalry between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England and discovers why they embarked upon a collision course that would end with Mary’s execution at the hands of the English queen. Tytler`s History of Scotland: With Illustrative Notes From Recently Discovered State Documents, and a Continuation of the History, From the Union of .

This postwar best seller is a sweeping, poetic natural history of the British landscape and imagination. Allan Massie, The Scotsman“The engine behind this history is running at full throttle, and its momentum carries the reader on at speed. A wide-ranging exploration of the origins of the Clearances from the 18th century to their culmination in the crofting legislation of the 1880s. A great deal has changed in the historiography of this period in the intervening three decades: an . Other reviews complain about the lack of detail in the book and that is true, considering all that it wants to encompass and the limited writing space.From current day sectarianism to the Free Church, religion has had a dominant effect upon society in Scotland for centuries.

From the Thirty Years' War to Jacobite risings and today's ongoing independence debates, Scotland and its diaspora have undergone profound changes. A flagship series for Edinburgh University Press, these classic textbooks are written by authors at the forefront of their discipline and provide an ideal introduction to Scottish history for undergraduates and general readers. It is not impossible to get lost in betwixt such large a varied sum of events, in what could easily be interpreted as an as-concise-as-it-could-have-been-wrought-to-be story, but fortunately Neil's skills as an effortless storyteller keeps your eyes peeled at every page turn. M. Devine's The Scottish Nation: A Modern History traces the epic story of a nation from the Union with England to today's debates on the possibilities of Scottish independence. Authored by three experts who have spent their lives working with maps, this beautifully illustrated book journeys from the earliest representations of Scotland, to the most recent forms of mapping and geographical representations.This account of Edinburgh's role in the Scottish Enlightenment details the city's transformation from squalid backwater to marvelous European capital. This firsthand account of 19th century Edinburgh paints a vivid picture of Scotland's capital, and is the perfect read to prepare traveler’s for a first time visit.