Connecting Scotland’s History

This book will be available April 2025

About the Book: 

What was happening elsewhere in the world when Robert the Bruce was outlawed and Mary Queen of Scots lost her head? When Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes were invading Europe and Ivan the Terrible was the Russian czar, what was happening in Scotland? Find the answers to these questions in 2,000 years of Scottish history presented alongside events in the rest of the world.

By placing events in Scotland in relation to those elsewhere, we can see what is different or distinctive about Scotland’s experience. In contrast, we can also see what aspects of other histories Scottish history resembles, or what wider happenings it was part of. John Knox’s fiery sermons of the 1560s were connected into a wider Protestant Reformation, but they also represented a singularly Scottish version of a European phenomenon.

Connecting Scotland’s History presents a history of ‘many Scotlands’. We see the hybrid nature of a country with multiple peoples coming together in a distinctively Scottish mixture. From the Gaels, Picts and Norse people to more recent influxes from England, Ireland, continental Europe and beyond, Scotland’s history tells us of internal connections as well as connections between Scotland and the wider world.

Reviews: 

A wonderfully useful and courageous book. PROF DAUVIT BROUN 

A very accessible timeline of key developments in the history of Scotland... Strongly recommended. PROF EMERITUS SIR TOM DEVINE, The University of Edinburgh.

About the Author:

DR ANNA GROUNDWATER is currently the Principal Curator for Renaissance and Early Modern History at the National Museum of Scotland. She previously lectured in early modern Scottish and British History at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of several publications on Scottish history including History Scotland, and acts as a consultant to TV history programmes including the BBC’s Scotland’s Clans. She is currently a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and on the editorial boards of the Antiquaries of Scotland, and of the Scottish Archives, the journal of the Scottish Records Association. She is a reviewer for multiple publications including the English Historical Review, the Innes Review, and the Journal of British Studies.