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FEATURES SECTION BOOK REVIEW
SCOTLAND A New History Scotland A New History by Michael Lynch Pimlico, London 1992 506 p. Michael Lynch, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh, has put together a wonderfully lucid book documenting the history of Scotland from "The Land and Its People before AD 400" up through 1992. The book has thirty-one illustrations and seven maps. It has been perhaps a quarter of a century since a single volume book of this magnitude has appeared. Lynch manages to convey in a relatively small number of pages, a depth to the material one might expect to find in a work of several volumes. His attention to detail never overshadows the broader scope of the work, but illuminates and gives substance and detail. The book is full of information on the interrelationships between economics, religion and politics and gives fine glimpses into the personal lives of some of Scotland's most famous figures. There is a clear awareness of the way the past continues to affect and shape the present (and indeed the future). Lynch is aware of the way in which cultures at different times reshape and refashion their own history and reveals the way in which this has happened with Scotland as its identity has shifted over the centuries. The book sells for 10£ and is well worth the price!
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