Historians have long influenced how Scotland remembers its past, but Dr Catriona M. M. Macdonald argues that the public knew surprisingly little about who wrote that history. In her new book, The Caledoniad: The Making of Scottish History, Macdonald examines why Scots in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were largely unaware of the figures who controlled their national narrative. The work is a full survey of how the discipline of Scottish history became professionalized, identifying and assessing the “sages” who shaped it.
Amateurs and Professionals
Scotland’s historical cohort has always been small, with many contributors lacking formal training. Reflecting their era, these amateur and early professional historians often made little progress in advancing their subject. Macdonald observes that in these introverted circumstances, historical fiction and popular histories were essential for keeping the Scottish historical imagination alive. Novelists and popular writers, once scorned by the establishment, often anticipated the insights that professional historians later developed.
The book explores why a truly unified British history never emerged, despite widespread interest. Macdonald suggests that history is more than a recitation of government documents. Popular historians frequently offered a different perspective on the nation’s development, challenging the academic establishment.
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John Prebble and the Battle for the Narrative
A significant portion of the work focuses on John Prebble, a writer whose fiction blended with fact. Professional historians frequently criticized his work as “faction,” using terms like “tartan history” to dismiss it. Macdonald, however, asserts that Prebble handled “the treacherous sea of academic scorn” effectively. He raised popular awareness of key aspects of Scottish history, constituting an unwelcome challenge to academic historians.
Macdonald notes that some academic Scottish historians, who were “less inclined to soundbites in the press,” privately credited the depth of Prebble’s scholarship. This dynamic highlights the tension between accessibility and academic rigour. The book suggests that to give history back to the people, it first had to be taken back from certain university historians who had monopolized the discipline.
The Influence of Law and Gender
The background of many Scottish historians reveals specific professional influences. A large number were lawyers, while politics and religion also played significant roles in shaping their perspectives. This legal background is often associated with Sir Walter Scott, whose work remains influential. Macdonald also discusses historians in London who wrote on Scottish themes, noting a tendency to develop a “familiar vision of Britain as ‘England plus’.” This perspective frequently showed a clear antipathy to Celtic history.
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Another critical theme is the gender imbalance in the field. The male-dominated world of historians was slow to accept the work of female scholars. Agnes Mure Mackenzie, who possessed a doctorate and a publishing history, is presented as personifying a transitional period in the profession. Her career demonstrates the slow but necessary inclusion of women in the historical establishment.
The Limits of the Discipline
It is difficult to consider how anyone might read, study or reflect on Scottish history in the future without having taken up The Caledoniad as it sets the limits of the subject in the past and the reasons for those limitations. The Caledoniad: The Making of Scottish History by Catriona M. M. Macdonald. Published by John Donald, 562pp, £90.