' Every Scot should read it. Scotland now has the lively provocative & positive history it deserves.' Irvine Welsh Guardian A dramatic & intriguing history of how Scotland produced the institutions beliefs & human character that have made the West into the most powerful culture in the world. Arthur Herman argues that Scotland's turbulent history from William Wallace to the Presbyterian Lords of the Covenant laid the foundations for 'the Scottish miracle'. Within one hundred years the nation that began the eighteenth century dominated by the harsh & repressive Scottish Kirk had evolved into Europe's most literate society producing an idea of modernity that has shaped much of civilisation as we know it. He follows the lives & work of thinkers such as Adam Smith & David Hume writers such as Burns & Boswell as well as architects technicians & inventors & traces their legacy into the twentieth century. Written with wit erudition & clarity The Scottish Enlightenment claims the Scots' rightful place in the history of the western world.