
Last of the Free: A Millennial History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Hardback)
James Hunter (author)
£18.00
Hardback
416 Pages
Published: 21/09/1999
Published: 21/09/1999
Written by a man who is both an award-winning historian of the Highlands and Islands and a key figure in shaping the region's future development, this is an account of how the Highlands and Islands of Scotland evolved into the way they are today. But the book is not simply the story of humanity's millennium-long involvement with one of the world's most spectacular localities. It is also a contribution to the present-day debate about how Scotland - and Britain - should be organized. James Hunter's central contention is that the Highlands and Islands were most successful when the region possessed a large measure of autonomy, which turned places like Iona and Kirkwall into centres of European significance. That autonomy was destroyed, he maintains, by mediaeval Scotland's monarchy, by 17th-century Scotland's parliament and by the British politicians who inherited the Scottish state's unrelenting determination to ensure that inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands had no worthwhile control over their own destinies.
The more recent history of the Highlands and Islands, in Hunter's opinion, has consisted mainly of attempts by the region's people to regain freedom and rights - including rights to land - of which they were deprived in the Middle Ages and afterwards. Today those attempts are succeeding and, this book argues, ought to be encouraged by Scotland's new government. If it is to do better by the Highlands and Islands than Scottish governments of the past, it will have to see that devolution of political power does not stop in Edinburgh.
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd
ISBN: 9781840180299
Number of pages: 416
Weight: 883 g
Dimensions: 240 x 165 mm
You may also be interested in...
Please sign in to write a review
Sign In / Register
Not registered? CREATE AN ACCOUNTCREATE A plus ACCOUNT
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
Click & Collect
Reserve online, pay on collection
Thank you for your reservation
Your order is now being processed and we have sent a confirmation email to you at
When will my order be ready to collect?
Following the initial email, you will be contacted by the shop to confirm that your item is available for collection.
Call us on or send us an email at
Unfortunately there has been a problem with your order
Please try again or alternatively you can contact your chosen shop on or send us an email at