The Scottish Clearances by TM Devine - a review

The name of the book, The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900, highlights Sir Tom Devine’s central premise that what occurred was a deliberate and nationwide process that affected lowland areas as much, arguably more so, than the Highlands. At the heart of the narrative is an evidentially robust but also often grim and very human story of how Scotland was transformed from the rural society of old to the largely urban nation we know today. The end of traditional Highland life is here, warts and all, but crucially so too is the far less well-known story of the demise of an entire class of lowland folk, the cottars.

Ewen MacAskill's review at The Guardian:

In this book, he chronicles land ownership, the clan system and shifting attitudes towards Highlanders, from heroic soldiers to lazy aborigines. But this is a serious book, which includes a large section on dispossession in the Borders – intended to put what happened in the Highlands and Islands into perspective.

read more here

@ The Scotsman - The Highland Clearances

@ Wikipedia - The Highland Clearances

@ The Herald - review