Scotland: The Global History: 1603 to the Present

by Murray Pittock

Research carried out in the 1990s indicated that North Americans of Scottish heritage usually remember their families as having left Scotland for reasons of economic betterment even if historically they were cleared off the land, while those of Irish heritage recollect displacement and oppression even if their ancestors left for economic betterment. Victimhood, which tends towards unifying the political views of a diaspora, is not often found in the Scottish diaspora or in those who adhere to it, and indeed there is sometimes a degree of self-congratulation to the extent that it is not unknown for American Scots to be of the view that all the most able Scots have already left the country, however much they may invoke it in performative memory. This view is not of course incompatible with the general view of the Scotland brand as lacking in technology and innovation. For many, Scotland is what it used to be, not what it has become.