Scotland is a mix of numerous cultures and influences - Norse, Pictish, Celtic, Flemish and English - and has long been split between the Highland and Lowland parts of the country. It has suffered from wars and famine, seen poverty and class divides in both countryside and city, and been regarded as geographically remote. Such a complex mixture provides for fascinating social histories as sweeping changes have overtaken the country throughout the last few centuries, rendering many ways of life redundant and almost forgotten. Yet we have recently see island and community buy-outs revitalise areas and crofting has made a comeback as an ecologically sound way of life.
Here too are the stories of those who emigrated to start new lives abroad but took much of their essential Scottish character with them.
A Dance Called America
James Hunter
The impact of the Scottish Highlanders who emigrated to America in search of a new life.
A Poem Of Remote Lives
Michael Russell
Wonderfully evocative photographs by a German aristocrat who fell in love with the Hebrides.
A Time of Tyrants
Trevor Royle
Acclaimed military historian Trevor Royle examines Scotland's role in the Second World War.
A Very Civil People
John Lorne Campbell
A collection of essays on the people and traditions of the Western Isles by this noted scholar.
An Honest Trade
An account of the dramatic changes which took place in the book trade during the 20th century.
Around the Peat Fire
Calum Smith
Calum Smith's memoirs are a celebration of a Gaelic culture and society in the throes of great change.
Black FridayCattle on a Thousand Hills
Katharine Stewart
An insightful, affectionate look at the often neglected role of cattle in shaping Highland life, from religious practices to cattle-raiding to cowboys.
Country Life in ScotlandDundee
Ian Ogilvy
An exploration in articles of the unique Dundonian character - its people, industry and history.
Eigg
Camille Dressler
An account of the history of the island and its people from ancient times to the celebrated community buyout in 1997.
Glencoe and the Indians
James Hunter
The links that were forged between native Americans and Scottish Highlanders across 30 generations of a family.
Hebridean Island
Angus Duncan
The author's boyhood on this tiny island at the end of the 19th century.
Hebridean Memories
Highland CowboysPilgrims in the Mist
Sheila Stewart
Sheila Stewart, singer, storyteller and author, is one of the last in the line of Scotland's travelling people. The way of life of the old travellers - tramping the country roads, camping in the woods, hawking, fortune-telling and temporary work on farms - has now all but died out.
Scottish Exodus
James Hunter
A unique approach to studying the Scottish diaspora, Hunter looks at specific members of one clan - the MacLeods - and what became of them in very different parts of the world.
Stone Voices
The Canoe Boys
The Claim of Crofting
James Hunter
A look at how crofting, once dismissed as an outmoded and irrelevant form of living, has now become recognised as an ecologically sound and resilient means of revitalising remote communities .
The Making of the Crofting Community
James Hunter
A classic of social history which tells the background to the oppression and dispossession of the crofting communities of the Western Highlands and Islands.
The Scottish Countryside
To the Ends of the Earth
Victorian Scotland
Villages Of Fife
Wanderings with a Camera in Scotland
Lesley Ferguson
A superb collection of high-quality historical photographs.
When I Was Young
Women of Scotland