Radical Scotland

About the Book: 

The era of devolution as we have known it is over. Radical Scotland challenges conventional wisdoms, and poses solutions which encourage us to become more active agents of our own destiny.

Scotland believes it is a radical, egalitarian, inclusive nation. It was hoped that the establishment of the Scottish Parliament was going to give expression to this. Instead, we have witnessed a minimal, unattractive politics with little to choose between the main parties. This might be adequate in the good times, but no more.

Radical Scotland: Arguments for Self-Determination explores how we can go beyond the limited politics we have experienced and makes the case for shifting from self-government politically to self-determination as a society and a nation. It asks how do we shake up institutional Scotland? How do we shift power and give people voice?

The editors Gerry Hassan and Rosie Ilett have brought together in one volume some of the most original thinkers in our nation making the case for a very different politics and society. It includes conversations with leading global figures on some of the key issues facing the world which impact on Scotland. This book is a must read for all those interested in Scotland at a crucial time, for its future, for the Parliament, and for those who want our politics and public policy to be more effective, imaginative and bold.

It seems to me that you are bound to assume that a self-governing Scotland is going to be immediately morally better, and I don?t see it unless there has also been a revolution. NAOMI MITCHISON, 1953

Reviews: 

A refreshing assault on sloppy and unimaginative thinking, be it left or right, Unionist or Nationalist. DAVID TORRANCE Freelance Journalist and Biographer of Alex Salmond

About the Authors:

GERRY HASSAN is a writer, thinker and commentator, and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Dundee. His primary focus is politics in the UK and Scotland, about which he has written numerous books, including in-depth studies of the Labour Party and SNP, and the creation and progress of the Scottish Parliament. 

He is author of the best-selling and acclaimed Caledonian Dreaming: The Quest for a Different Scotland, published by Luath Press in 2014; Scotland the Bold: How the Nation has Changing and Why There is No Going Back; and co-author of the definitive study of Scottish Labour, The Strange Death of Labour Scotland. He co-edited A Nation Changed?: The SNP and Scotland Ten Years On with Simon Barrow, published by Luath Press in 2017, which is the only study of the SNP’s ten years in office. He has also published the first-ever study of the Labour Party and Britishness: The People’s Flag and the Union Jack, in 2019.

Forthcoming publications include A Better Nation: The Challenges of Scottish Independence (with Simon barrow – Luath Press, 2022), which outlines approaches to the independence debate which are respectful of different views, doubts and ambiguities, asking what kind of society we want to create and how Scotland may want to govern herself. Gerry writes and appears in the media regularly, as well as speaking at events, discussions and conferences in Scotland, the UK and internationally.

ROSIE LLETT is Deputy Director, Glasgow Centre for Population Health and Honorary Senior Lecturer at University of Glasgow. She recently co-edited Transforming Sexual Health in Scotland: Cultural, Organisational and Partnership Approaches.