Synopses & Reviews
The editors recount the daily behaviors, experiences, and beliefs of the Scottish people from early times to 1600. They establish the character of everyday life in Scotland as it developed over time and within specific contexts. Despite focusing on the mundane, the editors also heed the experience of war, famine, environmental disaster, and other disturbances, assessing long-term processes of change in religion, politics, and economic and social affairs. In showing how the extraordinary impinged on the everyday, this book draws on every possible kind of evidence, including a diverse range of documentary sources; artefactual, environmental, and archaeological materials; and the published work of many disciplines. Contributors respect a variety of Scottish voices and reveal the nature of daily life across rank, class, gender, age, religion, and ethnicity. They mark the differences between Highland and Lowland, Western Isles and Northern Isles, inland and coastal, and urban and rural, and they trace the influence of language, whether Gaelic, Welsh, English, Pictish, Norse, Latin, or Scots. Particularly fascinating are advances brought about by trading and migration. Taken as a whole, this portrait introduces a brand new perspective on medieval Scotland, with implications for all areas of historical scholarship.
Synopsis
This book examines the ordinary, routine, daily behaviour, experiences and beliefs of people in Scotland from the earliest times to 1600.
Synopsis
This book examines the ordinary, routine, daily behaviour, experiences and beliefs of people in Scotland from the earliest times to 1600. Its purpose is to discover the character of everyday life in Scotland over time and to do so, where possible, within a comparative context. Its focus is on the mundane, but at the same time it takes heed of the people's experience of wars, famine, environmental disaster and other major causes of disturbance, and assesses the effects of longer-term processes of change in religion, politics, and economic and social affairs. In showing how the extraordinary impinged on the everyday, the book draws on every possible kind of evidence including a diverse range of documentary sources, artefactual, environmental and archaeological material, and the published work of many disciplines.The authors explore the lives of all the people of Scotland and provide unique insights into how the experience of daily life varied across time according to rank, class, gender, age, religion
About the Author
Edward J Cowan is Professor of Scottish History at the University of Glasgow Lizanne Henderson is Lecturer in History at the University of Glasgow