Book description
Who formed the first modern nation?
Who created the first literate society?
Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism?
The Scots.
Mention of Scotland and the Scots usually conjures up images of kilts, bagpipes, Scotch whisky, and golf. But as historian and author Arthur Herman demonstrates,…
Why read it?
1 author picked How the Scots Invented the Modern World as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
In preparation for visiting Scotland in the summer of 2023, I read this book.
It makes a fascinating argument that this small country on the edge of Europe, in a dazzling and brief burst of intellectual creativity, invented the modern world. It is a huge claim but is backed up in the discussion of how Scots such as Adam Smith invented economics, the geologist James Hutton gave us the idea of deep time, and David Hume was the first philosopher of modernity.
OK I am biased. I was born in Scotland. But even if you did not have the good…
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