Many of the ideas and the Scottish figures were familiar to me, as were many of the concepts from Enlightenment, but I had never contextualized the cultural connections that Herman fits together. I learned a lot from How the Scots Invented the Modern World. Whether discussing educational theories, scientific discoveries, or global colonization, Herman reinforces a cultural pragmatism that sounded very familiar to me. Always, however, he connects those later achievements to the Scottish ethos that preceded them. Later chapters turn more toward summary than analysis, as Herman describes the accomplishments of Scotsmen who triumphed around the globe. A few chapters assess historical trends, too, freely admitting some egregious moments in Scottish history while praising the outcomes when practical Scotsmen moved on from chaotic failures to ultimate successes. The early chapters analyze the intellectual history of eighteenth-century Scottish thinkers, explaining how they built upon one another’s ideas and how they created a middle-class educational philosophy that spilled into many practical areas of human endeavor. They showed how a respect for science and technology can combine with a love for the arts how private affluence can enhance a sense of civic responsibility how political and economic democracy can flourish side by side and how a confidence in the future depends on a reverence for the past.” How the Scots Invented the Modern World both analyzes and describes how the Scottish Enlightenment and its enlightened heirs influenced generations of professors, clerics, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, politicians, and men of letters.
They showed how modern life can be spiritually as well as materially fulfilling. They taught the world that true liberty requires a sense of personal obligation as well as individual rights.
Herman summarizes Scottish contributions in the final paragraph of his intriguing book, writing that “the Scots have by and large made the world a better place. Now Herman has added a third caveat – modernity owes much of its success to Scotsmen.
We should be very proud of our heritage we must always strive to uphold the high standards that characterize our ethnicity. His thesis confirms what my bagpipe-loving father and my Highland/Glaswegian grandparents insisted throughout my youth – Scots are special. Readers of Scottish ancestry should not miss Arthur Herman’s How the Scots Invented the Modern World.
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