A History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1600 to 1800

by Elizabeth A Foyster (Editor), Christopher A Whatley (Editor)

Overview

This book explores the ordinary daily routines, behaviours, experiences and beliefs of the Scottish people during a period of immense political, social and economic change. It underlines the importance of the church in post-Reformation Scottish society, but also highlights aspects of everyday life that remained the same, or similar, notwithstanding the efforts of the kirk, employers and the state to alter behaviours and attitudes.Drawing upon and interrogating a range of primary sources, the authors create a richly coloured, highly-nuanced picture of the lives of ordinary Scots from birth through marriage to death. Analytical in approach, the coverage of topics is wide, ranging from the ways people made a living, through their non-work activities including reading, playing and relationships, to the ways they experienced illness and approached death

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748619658
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	02/28/2010
Series:	A History of Everyday Life in Scotland , #2
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth Foyster is Senior College Lecturer and Fellow in History at the Clare College, University of Cambridge Christopher Whatley is Professor of Scottish History at the University of Dundee

Table of Contents

List of Tables vi

List of Figures vii

Acknowledgements ix

Series Editors' Foreword Christopher A. Whatley Elizabeth Foyster xi

Introduction: Recovering the Everyday in Early Modern Scotland Elizabeth Foyster Christopher A. Whatley 1

1 Everyday Structures, Rhythms and Spaces of the Scottish Countryside Robert A. Dodgshon 27

2 Improvement and Modernisation in Everyday Enlightenment Scotland Charles McKean 51

3 Death, Birth and Marriage in Early Modern Scotland Deborah A. Symonds 83

4 Illness, Disease and Pain Helen M. Dingwall 108

5 Necessities: Food and Clothing in the Long Eighteenth Century Stana Nenadic 137

6 Communicating Bob Harris 164

7 Order and Disorder Christopher A. Whatley 191

8 Sensory Experiences: Smells, Sounds and Touch Elizabeth Foyster 217

9 Beliefs, Religions, Fears and Neuroses Joyce Miller 234

10 Movement, Transport and Travel Alastair Durie 252

11 Work, Time and Pastimes Christopher A. Whatley 273

Annotated Bibliography 304

Notes on the Contributors 316

Index 319

Editorial Reviews

This is a book with ambitious coverage, with chapters on rural life, architecture, birth, death and marriage, illness, food and clothing, literacy and education, keeping order, belief, travel and work... There is much here that is fascinating... This is a book full of insights and genuinely pioneering. We can look forward to the following volumes

The Scotsman - T.C. Smout

The essays will be of interest to both casual and expert readers, and taken together they add up to an impressive and stimulating snapshot of early-modern Scottish society. Moreover, the reading experience is enhanced by the high quality of the production, the wide range of engaging and unusual illustrations, and the provision for each chapter of briefbut useful guides to further reading... There can be no doubt about the importance of this publication. It offers a stimulating and authoritative overview of Scottish social history in the early-modern period, written by a group of historians whose expertise and formidable familiarity with the sources are obvious. As a synthesis of past and current research it provides a resource that will be especially cherished by historians and students. But equally importantly, its determination to look beyond the obvious, to interrogate the sources in innovative and imaginative ways, and to give a voice to the almost silent masses of history, is a welcome reminder of the richness of the historian’s craft, not to mention a stirring battle-cry to expand horizons ever further.

History Scotland - Allan Kennedy

A vauluable addition to a growing historiography of ordinary, everyday life.

International Review of Scottish Studies - Alexandra Logue