Recovering Scottish History

Abstract

Incorporating a reassessment of John Hill Burton, a significant figure in Nineteenth-century Scottish thought, the book presents a revision of the predominant interpretation of how nineteenth-century Scotland perceived its past. It traces Burton’s diverse social and intellectual acquaintance, and equally varied literary endeavours, from his early life and education in 1820s Aberdeen to his increasingly prominent profile in the Edinburgh of Scott, Jeffrey and Cockburn. A detailed assessment of Burton’s History of Scotland(1873) uncovers prominent themes captured in the terms of Utilitarian History, Romantic History, Gothic History and History as Theatre. In chapters analysing these discourses the relation of historiography and biography is maintained in examining Burton’s immersion in the social and cultural world of his time. An analysis of the highly positive reception of Burton’s historical efforts deals firstly with the impact of his initial, more limited 1853 History since this was published at a particular juncture – the height of the ‘Scottish Rights’ agitation of the early 1850s – and functioned, it is argued, to charge that discontent with a new historical dimension centring on the 1707 Union. An extended analysis of the reception of his later multi-volume History includes a comparison with the characteristics of contemporary national histories across Europe. The response to his magnum opus is viewed as overturning orthodox assumptions of the ‘death’ of Scottish history in the nineteenth century; and together with the contemporary development of Scottish cultural institutions, as evidencing a revival of national identity founded on a new engagement with the nation’s past.