The Scottish Clearances - T. M. Devine

'A superb book ... Anybody interested in Scottish history needs to read it' Andrew Marr, Sunday Times

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.

Based on a vast
array of original sources, 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.