![]() Anglo-Scottish relations were different because Scotland in the Middle Ages achieved a form of state, and a French alliance, which made it too tough a proposition for England to conquer, despite many attempts. Englishmen tend to forget that Wales and Ireland were subjugated by military conquest. The unity of Great Britain today was brought about by a great deal of bloodshed in the past. So this is a refreshing book, especially salutary for English historians, but with lessons for Welsh, Irish, and Scottish historians too. “Later national boundaries were extended backwards into a past where they had little or no relevance,” Kearney writes, “with the consequence that earlier tribal or pre-national societies were lost to sight.” A consequent error is to assume that the unity of each of these nations, in the form that it ultimately took, is good in itself, and that all history was inevitably moving in that direction. A second error is to assume that the territories which we today call “England,” “Wales,” “Ireland,” “Scotland” always were England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. ![]() The first error is to speak of “England” when we mean “Great Britain.” I am ashamed to say that I have committed this solecism in my time. Professor Kearney has taught at universities in Ireland, England, Scotland, and the US, so he is well equipped for his subject. This timely book aims to correct many popular errors of which historians, of the British Isles at least, are guilty. ![]()
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