The Wealth of the Nation: Scotland, Culture and Independence

by Cairns Craig

Overview

The Wealth of the Nation explores how Scotland has continued to assert its distinctive cultural difference despite the three-hundred-year union with England and the modern forces of globalisation. Dealing with Scotland since the eighteenth century, the study analyses how Scottish culture defined itself within the British Empire and how, in the late twentieth century, it recovered from the collapse of the Empire to rebuild the value of its cultural past. Through its focus on the role of memory in philosophy, literature and the visual arts, readers will gain understanding of the influence that modern Scottish writers and artists have had on contemporary Scottish nationalism. The book argues that political nationalism in modern Scotland is founded on a cultural revival that began in the 1950s and 60s but gained momentum from resistance to the outcome of the 1979 devolution referendum. That resistance, and the creative achievements which it generated, provoked a re-examination of the nation’s cultural history, revealing a wealth previously denied or forgotten.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474435574
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2018
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Cairns Craig is Professor Emeritus in Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. His most recent books are The Wealth of the Nation: Scotland, Culture, Independence (2018) and Muriel Spark, Existentialism and the Art of Death (2019), both published by Edinburgh UniversityPress. He was the general editor of the four volume History of Scottish Literature published by Aberdeen UniversityPress in 1987, and was involved in editing the magazines Cencrastus and Radical Scotland in the 1980s. Other books on Scottish subjects include The Modern Scottish Novel (1999) and Intending Scotland (2009).

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Wealth of the Nation1. Cultural Capital and the Xeniteian Empire2. In the Race of History3. Living Memory: Nostalgia, Necromancy and Nostophobia4. Theoxenia: Invitations to the GodsConclusion: Unsettled Will

What People are Saying About This

'Cairns Craig’s adventurous and learned arguments always pivot our understanding of Scotland’s pasts and futures. The Wealth of the Nation engages literature, history, economics and politics to offer cogent support for culture as community and happiness as the wealth of the nation. This is a lesson still to be learned—far beyond Scotland.'

Caroline McCracken-Flesher

'Cairns Craig’s adventurous and learned arguments always pivot our understanding of Scotland’s pasts and futures. The Wealth of the Nation engages literature, history, economics and politics to offer cogent support for culture as community and happiness as the wealth of the nation. This is a lesson still to be learned—far beyond Scotland.'

Matthew Wickman

'The Wealth of the Nation presents an astonishingly rich tapestry of cultural, intellectual, literary and political history. At once absorbing and instructive, this tour de force recasts the influence and meaning of Scotland in the modern world. An undertaking this grand in scale requires a scholar of Craig’s singular gifts.'

Editorial Reviews

The Wealth of the Nation provides an abundance of historical detail and is a valuable and highly readable text.

Scottish Literary Review - Richard Barlow

'The Wealth of the Nation presents an astonishingly rich tapestry of cultural, intellectual, literary and political history. At once absorbing and instructive, this tour de force recasts the influence and meaning of Scotland in the modern world. An undertaking this grand in scale requires a scholar of Craig’s singular gifts.'

Matthew Wickman

'Cairns Craig’s adventurous and learned arguments always pivot our understanding of Scotland’s pasts and futures. The Wealth of the Nation engages literature, history, economics and politics to offer cogent support for culture as community and happiness as the wealth of the nation. This is a lesson still to be learned—far beyond Scotland.'

Caroline McCracken-Flesher