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From Chiefs to Landlords: Social and Economic Change in the Western Highlands & Islands
This new approach to Highland history before the Clearances draws attention to little-studied yet important economic and social processes within the Highland clan system and argues that we should consider the problems of traditional Highland society, economy and environment together.
Exploring how the different aspects of the clan system - chiefs and kinsmen, landlords and tenants, farming systems, production strategies and marketing - changed between the 16th-18th centuries, it shows how the character and ideology of clans and chiefdoms are inextricably part of the twin problems of socio-political control and food production. Shifting the emphasis away from depictions of Highland society as lawless and disorganised, this is a welcome antidote to the many romanticised views of pre-Clearance society.
Exploring how the different aspects of the clan system - chiefs and kinsmen, landlords and tenants, farming systems, production strategies and marketing - changed between the 16th-18th centuries, it shows how the character and ideology of clans and chiefdoms are inextricably part of the twin problems of socio-political control and food production. Shifting the emphasis away from depictions of Highland society as lawless and disorganised, this is a welcome antidote to the many romanticised views of pre-Clearance society.
- GenresHistory
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 1998
12 people want to read
About the author
Robert A. Dodgshon
11 booksPrior to his retirement in 2007, Robert A. Dodgshon was Gregynog Professor of Geography at Aberystwyth University in Wales.
His primary research interests are in Historical and Cultural Geography. His work has focussed on two themes. First, he has worked on how geographical change works itself out in the very long-term, and the role played by institutional inertia in shaping such change. Second, he has worked on the cultural ecology of farming communities over the medieval and early modern periods, with a particular emphasis on mountain communities in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and the Western Alps.
He is a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (2010), as well as being a holder the Scottish Geographical Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (2003) and the Murchison Award of the Royal Geographical Society (1996). He served as a Council Member of the National Trust (2001-08) and the Countryside Council for Wales (1997-2004), as a member of the Joint National Nature Conservation Committee (2003-04) and, as President of the Society for Landscape Studies (1997-2008).
His primary research interests are in Historical and Cultural Geography. His work has focussed on two themes. First, he has worked on how geographical change works itself out in the very long-term, and the role played by institutional inertia in shaping such change. Second, he has worked on the cultural ecology of farming communities over the medieval and early modern periods, with a particular emphasis on mountain communities in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and the Western Alps.
He is a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (2010), as well as being a holder the Scottish Geographical Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (2003) and the Murchison Award of the Royal Geographical Society (1996). He served as a Council Member of the National Trust (2001-08) and the Countryside Council for Wales (1997-2004), as a member of the Joint National Nature Conservation Committee (2003-04) and, as President of the Society for Landscape Studies (1997-2008).
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