SCOTLAND HISTORY

A Maritime History of Scotland, 1650-1790 by Eric J. Graham

Synopsis
This text traces the development of the Scottish marine and its institutions during the highly turbulent and formative period 1650-1790, when state intervention and warefare at sea in the pursuit of mercantilist goals largely determined, intentionally and otherwise, the course of events. The book charts Scotland's frustrated attempts to join England in the Atlantic economy and so secure her prosperity - an often bitter relationship that culminated in the Darien Disaster. In the years that followed, maritime affairs were at the heart of the schism that propelled the move to embrace the full incorporating Act of Union of 1707. After 1707 Scottish maritime aspirations flourished under the protection of the British Navigation acts and the windfalls of endemic warfare at sea. The impact of major events, domestic and international, on Scottish maritime affairs has been place in context of the changes of the prevailing system. Warfare has particular relevance as the isolated location of many Scottish ports and sea areas actively encouraged enemy shipping to penetrate deep into Scottish home waters. The national and regional experience has, therefore, been set in "war and peace" apsects covering three periods: 1651-1755, 1756-75 and 1776-91, each a distinct phase in Scotland's participation in the evolving mercantilist trading system when a major war provided the principal catalyst for change.

The Lighthouse Stevenson's by Bella Bathurst

Synopsis
A pleasing historical story full of stunning feats of engineering, this is a unique account of how the ancestors of novelist Robert Louis Stevenson lit up the Scottish coast by building lighthouses in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bathurt's writing is so full of well-written detail that you can almost feel the wind, waves, and gales as they battered the men who built these magnificent, life-saving structures.

The Wreckers: A Story of Killing Seas, False Lights, and Plundered Shipwrecks by Bella Bathurst

Publisher's Synopsis
Bella Bathurst's first book, the acclaimed Lighthouse Stevensons, told the story of the construction of the Scottish lighthouses by the ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson. Now she returns to the sea to search out the darker side of those lights. Even now, Britain's coastline remains a dangerous place. An island soaked by four separate seas, with shifting sandbanks to the east, veiled reefs to the west, powerful currents above, and the world's busiest shipping channel below, the country's offshore waters are strewn with old shipwrecks. For villagers who scratched an existence along British shores, those wrecks often represented the difference between a good life and a hard one. Sometimes the 'wreckers' scavenged ships already ashore; sometimes they deliberately caused the casualties. Spanning three hundred years of seafaring history, The Wreckers examines the myths, realities, and superstitions of shipwrecks, from false beacons to smugglers' hideaways to twenty-first-century wrecking. Through painstaking research and interviews, Bathurst has created a remarkable work of narrative history and contemporary storytelling.

Fishing for Heritage: Modernity and Loss Along the Scottish Coast by Jane Nadel-Klein

Publisher's Synopsis
"Castles, lochs, seascapes. Coastal Scotland is one of the world's most romanticized tourist destinations, yet it is in the midst of severe economic decline. The North Atlantic fisheries crisis has hit Scottish communities hard and local fisherfolk are faced with chronic insecurity, anxiety over the decline of fishing and doubts about their cultural survival. The decline of this traditional industry has been accompanied by growing tourism along Scottish shores. Fishing villages are marketed for tourist consumption and culture has become a commodity." Drawing upon fieldwork, novels, folk music and travel literature, Nadel-Klein explores how these influences have affected locals' sense of identity and presence within a modern European nation.

Herring Fishermen of Kintyre and Ayrshire by Angus Martin

Publisher's Synopsis
This title explores more than 140 years of Scottish fishing history told through the fishermen's own memories and traditions. A companion volume to "The North Herring Fishing", it concentrates on the accounts of the earlier period when crews worked with oar and sail. Such fisheries as Donegal and Dunmore East in Ireland, Isle of Man, Firth of Forth and Whitby are explored and the hardships and dangers of both drift-net and ring-net fishing recalled. More than 50 Kintyre and Ayrshire fishermen were interviewed to produce this tribute to a vanished way of life.