The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900
T.M. Devine
May 2021 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Ruth Urquhart
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13 hr 53 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Eighteenth-century Scotland is famed for generating many of the enlightened ideas which helped to shape the modern world. But there was in the same period another side to the history of the nation. Many of Scotland's people were subjected to coercive and sometimes violent change, as traditional ways of life were overturned by the "rational" exploitation of land use. The Scottish Clearances is a superb and highly original account of this sometimes terrible process, which changed the Lowland countryside forever, as it also did, more infamously, the old society of the Highlands. This pioneering book is the first to chart this tumultuous saga in one volume, with due attention to evictions and loss of land in both north and south of the Highland line. In the process, old myths are exploded and familiar assumptions undermined. With many fascinating details and the sense of an epic human story, The Scottish Clearances is an evocative memorial to all whose lives were irreparably changed in the interests of economic efficiency. This is a story of forced clearance, of the destruction of entire communities and of large-scale emigration. Some winners were able to adapt and exploit the new opportunities, but there were also others who lost everything. The clearances created the landscape of Scotland today, but it came at a huge price.
About the author
T. M. Devine is the author of The Scottish Nation, To the Ends of the Earth, Scotland's Empire, and The Scottish Clearances.
Ruth Urquhart trained at East 15 Acting School and has spent the last twenty years working as an actor in theater, film, TV, and education. Ruth is an Audible Approved Producer and has narrated over 100 titles. She lives in Yorkshire, England, with her partner, two children, and an array of animals.
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