Ebook: Scottish Highlands and the Atlantic World: Social Networks and Identities

Reveals the importance of social networks and identities to defining Highland Scots’ engagements with Empire and its lasting legacies

• A central, reliable and readable reference point for study of a topic that will interest a wide range of scholars and the reading public internationally
• Individual chapters that will suit individual specialisms, while still being accessible to readers from other disciplines/professions
• Innovative and topical commentaries which are highly readable, provocative and agenda-setting
• Important (re)considerations of neglected and/or understudied perspectives and areas of scholarship, presenting new histories of understudied social groups or situations and new insight on social networks and entanglements as a key aspect of Empire
• Interdisciplinary editorial team with track record of delivering edited volumes
• International material to allow comparison and contextualisation and broaden readerships

This is a book about the social in Highland entanglements with Empire – the networks, relationships and identities that made it possible for Highland Scots to access the Empire and its benefits. It explores – from a range of perspectives – the impact that these Scots had, as sojourners and settlers, on the different places they encountered. It is also a book about the present-day legacies of their engagements with Empire, and of the ongoing process of forging social and cultural identities with Highland roots.

The volume presents rigorous and insightful new research from both well-established and early career scholars, accompanied by commentary on the research and the issues it raises from a range of academic and non-academic voices. The book represents a significant contribution to our understanding of the role of Highland Scots, influenced by their culture and language, in creating the Empire and its legacies. It advances knowledge of just how diverse the impacts of Highland Scots were on forging landscapes and lifescapes across the Atlantic, and how their exposure to the colonial world influenced and reshaped their Diasporic identities. While the British Empire was a collaboration of diverse interests, this book will shed light on one important interest: the Highland one.