All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. So many interesting stories here, and well worth the read- better than the biography of just one man, a sweeping view of a country and its contributions. Smith would put it in his Wealth of Nations, almost fifty years later: “The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition . A distinguished historian explores the seminal contributions of Scotland to the development of modern Western civilization, discussing the impact of such ideals as democracy, freedom of speech, equal opportunity, and a commitment to education and exploring Scottish accomplishments in the fields of philosophy, science, medicine, engineering, political thought, and more. This book may do for the Scots what Thomas Cahill did for the Irish when he wrote "How the Irish Saved Western Civilization.

Perhaps because Knox's closest allies were Scottish nobles who wanted to see the Scottish monarchy tamed, or because nearly every monarch he dealt with was either a child or a woman (the boy king Edward VI of England, Mary Queen of Scots, the Scottish Regent Mary of Guise, and English queens Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I), he treated them all with impatience and contempt. And no one who takes this incredible historical trek will ever view the Scots—or the modern West—in the same way again. She made the mistake of marrying Darnley anyway, and set in motion the series of scandals that would finally push her off the throne. Even though they were Catholics, Knox represented a spiritual authority they needed to legitimize their own. It will show how that idea transformed their own culture and society in the eighteenth century, and how they carried it with them wherever they went.

Herman had only once been to Scotland as a teenager when his father, a professor, spent a semester at Edinburgh University. It permitted business to choose its location, like in cities close to inexpensive labor, and it was Scots who rectified negative impacts industry had, i.

Like Robertson, Carlyle, and the other Edinburgh student volunteers, they were Whigs, but less from conviction than out of practical self-interest. In many ways Smith is the fusion of the two sides of the Enlightenment, the “soft” side represented by Hutcheson— with its belief in man’s innate goodness, its faith in the power of education to enlighten and liberate, and its appeal to nature— and the “hard” side represented by Kames and Hume, with its cool, skeptical distrust of human intentions and motives. In addition, many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were either Scottish or descendents of Scots.This time I was able to really focus and listen and I picked up so much I missed the first time and also was able to process some of the concepts more thoroughly. It involved taking over and running another society for its own good— not by saving its soul through Christianity, as other European imperialisms had claimed to do, but in material terms. The people were always more powerful than the rulers they created; they were free to remove them at will. How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William "Braveheart" Wallace to James Bond. At its core was a group of erudite and believing clergymen (unlike the various abbés of the French Enlightenment, who were by and large skeptics, and clerics only as a matter of convenience and income).

Adam Smith, David Hume, Lord Kames, James Watt and other crucial figures to Western history walk through these pages.

By 1570, Knox recognized that Mary no longer had any part to play in making the New Jerusalem and he swept her aside, like a useless piece from the game board. This liberalized the Scottish way of life by allowing citizens to own land and keep the profits instead of giving all profits to the chieftains who owned all the land. Over the next century, Scots would learn to rely on their own resources and ingenuity far more than their southern neighbors would. Scotland’s upper and middle classes were losing that hard-driving entrepreneurial edge which had been a part of their cultural heritage. They were Whigs (Shaftesbury’s father had even been founder of the Whig Party), not just because they were strong Protestants but because they believed, contrary to Berkeley, that men were born with a desire to be free, in their own lives and in their political arrangements.

International products have separate terms, are sold from abroad and may differ from local products, including fit, age ratings, and language of product, labeling or instructions. The congregation's board of elders, the consistory, cared for the poor and the sick; it fed and clothed the community's orphans. In an excellent summary over two chapters, Herman outlines the Scottish Enlightenment and the men who created it. This is a broad overview of Scotland and it's contribution to civilization over the course of the last 400 years.The Scottish Enlightenment may have been less glamorous, but it was in many ways more robust and original. Tobacco Lords’ success lay in their balance sheets: their ability to summon up capital from a wide variety of sources, while ruthlessly cutting costs.