Divided Scotland - Tom Gallagher

£12.99 Paperback

Publish Date:  31st July 2013

ISBN: 9781908931283

the enduring of sectariansim

Why has inter-communal strife involving the use (and many would say mis-use) of religious and national symbols enjoyed such an extended life in Scotland? Why does it still manage to persist despite changes in Scottish society which would appear to remove the oxygen enabling sectarianism to breathe? Football seems to be its most visible outlet but has it merely been a channel for deeper suspicions and conflict? What role have the state and powerful institutions played in allowing such antagonism to continue or in belatedly limiting its worst effects? Is friction over symbols, territory, and allegiances part of a deeper factionalism in Scottish life that may not easily vanish even if state action drives sectarianism underground in Scotland?

This book is the first full-length study of Scotland’s ethno-religious discord that has appeared in the devolution era. It explores the origins and staying power of sectarian conflict and analyses the new tensions that have erupted since 2010, and the response of the state, the media, churches, the soccer world, and a range of civic groups. It argues that while Scotland has ceased to be overtly Protestant, anti-Catholicism remains an option that is acquiring respectability of the kind that it never had for almost a century. The Catholic Church’s defence of traditional social values has placed it on a collision course with secular interests who have filled the power vacuum in Scotland that opened up following the crumbling of a once-dominant Protestant order. The book argues that Catholicism continues to be seen as a backward force and as a drag on a modernising Scotland. Ironically, some of its staunchest allies are now to be found in the depleted ranks of protestant Scotland. So Scotland may be slowly overcoming one kind of sectarianism only to be embroiled in a new kind of war over faith and culture familiar to continental European countries like France and Spain in the last two hundred years. Arguably, Scots who despise their religious or ideological enemies are growing in number, not diminishing. They might ponder what happens when clashes of societal values, along with religious differences, are pushed to outright division.

Engine of Destruction - Colin Campbell

£25 Hardback

Publish Date:  1st August 2013

ISBN: 9781908931276

the 51st Highland Division in the Great War

So great was the reputation of Scottish combat troops in the trench warfare of World War I that an unnamed commentator told Haldane, author of the History of the 4th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders that ‘the two most terrible engines of destruction ever made by man were the 51st and 15th Divisions, both Scottish. . . ’

In this new evaluation timed to mark the centenary of the Great War (1914–18), Colin Campbell assesses the reputation of the elite 51st Division, which alleged that German soldiers feared it more that any other British or Empire division.

It was identifiably Scottish. Like the Canadians and  the ANZACS, Scotland had a more widely accessible educational system. In a society in which snobbery, real or contrived, exaggerated distinctions amongst regular, territorial and new army divisions, the 51st, as the only Highland division was in a minority of one. Being a Territorial division, Scottish, and drawn from one readily identifiable area gave it an easily defined corporate identity, giving it an advantage over Kitchener’s New Army divisions which had been drawn from throughout the United Kingdom. And all the 51st’s infantrymen were kilted, which made it a unique institution on the Western Front.

Engine of Destruction has been researched from  battalion and brigade official war diaries and  from  regimental and battalion histories and blends them with first hand accounts and letters, many of which have never been published before.  Colin Campbell’s  detailed and touching account of the war experience of the 51st Division is an amazing book in tribute to the Scottish soldier.

Includes illustration and maps.

Colin Campbell taught history, was an MSP and SNP defence spokesperson. He is a previously successful writer on World War I.