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How
the Scots Invented the Modern World
By Arthur
Herman
Crown Publishing, 2001 - 288 pages
I
will finish reading this book by the end of August because it
comes highly recommended by a friend of the family who is very
interested in Scottish history, as he is a Beattie. My last
name, Ross, is of Scottish descent and my relatives moved from
Scotland to Ireland apparently at the bequest of one of the
English Kings who wanted to develop some farming land or some
grazing land.
Anyways,
this book is about the history of Scotland
and how it has influenced the world.
While I believe the title is definitely hyperbole this
book is a great introduction for those seeking more
information on the subject.
For those that aren’t aware, David Hume and Adam
Smith are two of the most respected philosophers and economic
thinkers in the 18th century and the Scotts were
known for being educationally superior (leaps and bounds)
above the English for centuries.
The Scottish are also known for bringing
ideas of freedom, self-reliance, moral discipline, and
technological mastery with them.
Anyways,
the impact of the Scottish is quite large and, in many ways,
unappreciated. This
book, in conjunction with Thomas Sowell’s Migration and
Culture, can definitely give an individual a new sense of the
impact that societies and cultures have worldwide.
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About the
Author:
F. A. Hayek is
undoubtedly the most eminent of the modern
Austrian economists. Student of Friedrich von
Wieser, protégé and colleague of Ludwig von
Mises, and foremost representative of an
outstanding generation of Austrian school
theorists, Hayek was more successful than anyone
else in spreading Austrian ideas throughout the
English-speaking world. "When the definitive
history of economic analysis during the 1930s
comes to be written," said John Hicks in
1967, "a leading character in the drama (it
was quite a drama) will be Professor Hayek. . . .
It is hardly remembered that there was a time when
the new theories of Hayek were the principal rival
of the new theories of Keynes" (Hicks, 1967,
p. 203). Unfortunately, Hayek's theory of the
business cycle was eventually swept aside by the
Keynesian revolution. Ultimately, however, this
work was again recognized when Hayek received,
along with the Swede Gunnar Myrdal, the 1974 Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economic Science. Hayek was a
prolific writer over nearly seven decades; his Collected
Works, currently being published by the
University of Chicago Press and Routledge, are
projected at nineteen volumes.
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