- Email: [email protected]
An historical geography of Scotland
G. WHITTINGTON and I, D. WHYTE (Eda), .-frl Hisroric~l (;tqqr~lp/l~. of’Sc,o//trr~r/ ( London and New York: Academic Press. 1983. Pp. xiii + 281. f22.50 and $38.50: f9.80 and J 17.50 softback)
In 1887, the Duke of Argyll published a work entitled Scot/& As It CZ’CIS /irlrll.\. The title is well suited to the efforts of Whittington and Whyte and their contributors to document the influences behind Scotland’s present and past geographies. The emergence of Scotland “as it is” from Scotland “as she was” is treated in 11 chapters. Reviews of prehistoric and Dark Age Scotland provide a base on which are built four chapters with a medieval focus: “Medieval rural Scotland”; “Urban development. 1100-1700”; “Population patterns and processes from c. 1600” and a more general chapter on the agencies making for change and continuity in early modern Scotland. The making of modern Scotland from the eighteenth century on is covered by chapters on agriculture and society in lowland Scotland, industrial development, the changing geography of the Highlands. rural land use from c. 1870, and the nature of urbanization from 1750 to 1914. As several of the contributors point out, Scotland has always been a difficult place to live in. Even at the local level, factors of climate, relative paucity of soil cover and the presence of large comparatively infertile uplands. especially in the north and west. have influenced Scotland’s human geography since prehistoric times. At a broader level. the geography of Scotland is the geography of two distinct but not separate areas: the Lowlands and the Highlands. Most of the action before 1700 takes place in the first ot these. The introduction of feudalism was of little matter in the Highlands, but in the Lowlands. the laying down of new boundaries, on the land and in society, was of crucial importance to changes there. R. A. Dodgshon considers the tenurial context of medieval colonization, the landholding structure and the field economy of townships in examining the relationship of man to land in medieval rural Scotland and points to several areas in which our knowledge of the origins of the Scottish medieval landscape is deficient. Contemporary with developments in the management of farms during the early modern period was the growth and development of Scotland’s burghs and urban economy. R. Fox’s chapter on urban development 1100-l 700 is conccrncd more with burgh creation, the evolution of Scotland’s urban hierarchy, and the built form of the town in this period than with the social and economic changes towns represented. This is a pity since one loses sight of the links between town and country and the part each played in changing the other. The great majority of Scotland’s population in the past lived in and from the countryside. Just how many people, in what sort of relation to one another and even exactly where they lived is. as H. Jones points out. hard to say. This chapter makes extensive use of previously published material to review much of what is already known about Scotland’s population geography in the past. For all of these authors. and especially for Whyte, the seventeenth century is a crucial period in the Scottish past. In population. agriculture. rural society and in the consolidation of an emerging market economy, the seventeenth century witnessed the gradual move away from the old order and the adoption of new ways. Change was evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Even during periods of accelerated development in the eighteenth century, the nature of change throughout Scotland was more gradual than sudden, with the possible exception of parts of the Highlands. And even in the central Lowlands, where agriculture and society experienced change sooner and more completely than in other regions and where Scotland first developed an urban and industrial basis to her economy, change was accepted by some men and not others and more wholesale in some parts than others. The making of Scotland’s past geographies has always involved considerable diversity in unity. In their preface. the editors consider earlier writings upon Scotland’s past geographies to have been all too frequently marked bq a lack of critical thinking. shortage 01 methodological commitment and an imbalance towards agriculture and rural themes. In addition. they note that scant attention has been paid to the place of Scotland’s people in the making of her geographies. Their hope is that their volume will provide ;t basis 101
717
REVIEWS
shedding parochial perspectives. for the placing of things Scottish in a wider context and for a more acute critical awareness. These are no small claims. One cannot fault the spirit of enquiry of the book. Almost without exception, the contributors conclude their chapters with a list of things still to be done and themes to be considered. New avenues ot research have been and will continue to be taken up and this book will provide a sound footing. Even so. the work is perhaps more a review of Scottish historical geography as it was and is than what it might become.
The ,4mericas SLISAKL. FLAU~R (Ed.), (Minneapolis: University
Thr
Grmt
L~~kr.s Forrst:
of Minnesota
Press.
An Et~vi,~ot?mentcl/
1983. Pp. xxxii+336.
r~rd Socitrl
Histotyj,
$29-50)
The 18 chapters in this volume are revised versions of papers presented at a symposium entitled ‘Environmental Change in the Great Lakes Forest’, sponsored by the Forest History Society and held in Madison, Wisconsin. in 1979. Its purpose was “to provide for ;I multidisciplinary consideration of ecological and institutional change in the forest environment of the upper Great Lakes region” (p. xix). Flader states in her extensive introduction that although advances in ecosystem research have yielded reassessments of the “causes, nature, and impacts of changes in the forest environment. with resulting implications for land management and resource policies” (p. xix) there has been no historical analysis of these processes of change. Furthermore. most historians who have written about this region have concentrated on the recent past and thus any long-term ecological perspective. An additional goal of this book is to trace the development of that ecological perspective from early crude conceptions to more sophisticated. geobiotic perspcctivc from early crude conceptions to more sophisticated. gcobiotic ideas. The papers are grouped into five sections. the present. All four authors come from biological science backgrounds and employ explicit ecosystem approaches. They view the Great Lakes forest as one which has responded to many factors but differ in their judgments about the future role of man as a manager. 0. Loucks uses information from various techniques. including the analysis ol fossil pollen. tree-rings and varved lake sediments. to conclude that the Great Lakes forest ecosystem has constantly undergone change over the millenia and that perhaps “human interventions in the forest may not have more serious consequences for human beings than for the ever-changing ever-adaptable forest” (p. 31). The other three chapters accord man a much stronger influence as an agent for change. On the one hand E. Bourdo believes that positive intervention in the forest can result in more attractive forests than those which existed before logging; on the other C. and L. Ahlgren. studying the forest since logging, and Gates. tracing wildlife responses. tind great change in species composition and agree that human intervention has been so extensive that constant intervention will be required to prevent permanent modification of this ecosystem. Three chapters by C. Cleland. D. Harkin, and R. Deer. constitute section two. and provide a consideration of the role, impact, and adaptations made by the Woodland Indians of the region; more specifically the experience of the Menomincc Tribe of Wisconsin is examined vis-&vis the forest. T-he six chapters of section three and the two of section four examine the economic. social. and political efTects on the region from the years of rapid cutting in the late nineteenth century. through the period 1920 1960 during which the term “Cutover” wax applied. to the present concern with public amenity. A description of each stud> is not
In 1887, the Duke of Argyll published a work entitled Scot/& As It CZ’CIS /irlrll.\. The title is well suited to the efforts of Whittington and Whyte and their contributors to document the influences behind Scotland’s present and past geographies. The emergence of Scotland “as it is” from Scotland “as she was” is treated in 11 chapters. Reviews of prehistoric and Dark Age Scotland provide a base on which are built four chapters with a medieval focus: “Medieval rural Scotland”; “Urban development. 1100-1700”; “Population patterns and processes from c. 1600” and a more general chapter on the agencies making for change and continuity in early modern Scotland. The making of modern Scotland from the eighteenth century on is covered by chapters on agriculture and society in lowland Scotland, industrial development, the changing geography of the Highlands. rural land use from c. 1870, and the nature of urbanization from 1750 to 1914. As several of the contributors point out, Scotland has always been a difficult place to live in. Even at the local level, factors of climate, relative paucity of soil cover and the presence of large comparatively infertile uplands. especially in the north and west. have influenced Scotland’s human geography since prehistoric times. At a broader level. the geography of Scotland is the geography of two distinct but not separate areas: the Lowlands and the Highlands. Most of the action before 1700 takes place in the first ot these. The introduction of feudalism was of little matter in the Highlands, but in the Lowlands. the laying down of new boundaries, on the land and in society, was of crucial importance to changes there. R. A. Dodgshon considers the tenurial context of medieval colonization, the landholding structure and the field economy of townships in examining the relationship of man to land in medieval rural Scotland and points to several areas in which our knowledge of the origins of the Scottish medieval landscape is deficient. Contemporary with developments in the management of farms during the early modern period was the growth and development of Scotland’s burghs and urban economy. R. Fox’s chapter on urban development 1100-l 700 is conccrncd more with burgh creation, the evolution of Scotland’s urban hierarchy, and the built form of the town in this period than with the social and economic changes towns represented. This is a pity since one loses sight of the links between town and country and the part each played in changing the other. The great majority of Scotland’s population in the past lived in and from the countryside. Just how many people, in what sort of relation to one another and even exactly where they lived is. as H. Jones points out. hard to say. This chapter makes extensive use of previously published material to review much of what is already known about Scotland’s population geography in the past. For all of these authors. and especially for Whyte, the seventeenth century is a crucial period in the Scottish past. In population. agriculture. rural society and in the consolidation of an emerging market economy, the seventeenth century witnessed the gradual move away from the old order and the adoption of new ways. Change was evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Even during periods of accelerated development in the eighteenth century, the nature of change throughout Scotland was more gradual than sudden, with the possible exception of parts of the Highlands. And even in the central Lowlands, where agriculture and society experienced change sooner and more completely than in other regions and where Scotland first developed an urban and industrial basis to her economy, change was accepted by some men and not others and more wholesale in some parts than others. The making of Scotland’s past geographies has always involved considerable diversity in unity. In their preface. the editors consider earlier writings upon Scotland’s past geographies to have been all too frequently marked bq a lack of critical thinking. shortage 01 methodological commitment and an imbalance towards agriculture and rural themes. In addition. they note that scant attention has been paid to the place of Scotland’s people in the making of her geographies. Their hope is that their volume will provide ;t basis 101
717
REVIEWS
shedding parochial perspectives. for the placing of things Scottish in a wider context and for a more acute critical awareness. These are no small claims. One cannot fault the spirit of enquiry of the book. Almost without exception, the contributors conclude their chapters with a list of things still to be done and themes to be considered. New avenues ot research have been and will continue to be taken up and this book will provide a sound footing. Even so. the work is perhaps more a review of Scottish historical geography as it was and is than what it might become.
The ,4mericas SLISAKL. FLAU~R (Ed.), (Minneapolis: University
Thr
Grmt
L~~kr.s Forrst:
of Minnesota
Press.
An Et~vi,~ot?mentcl/
1983. Pp. xxxii+336.
r~rd Socitrl
Histotyj,
$29-50)
The 18 chapters in this volume are revised versions of papers presented at a symposium entitled ‘Environmental Change in the Great Lakes Forest’, sponsored by the Forest History Society and held in Madison, Wisconsin. in 1979. Its purpose was “to provide for ;I multidisciplinary consideration of ecological and institutional change in the forest environment of the upper Great Lakes region” (p. xix). Flader states in her extensive introduction that although advances in ecosystem research have yielded reassessments of the “causes, nature, and impacts of changes in the forest environment. with resulting implications for land management and resource policies” (p. xix) there has been no historical analysis of these processes of change. Furthermore. most historians who have written about this region have concentrated on the recent past and thus any long-term ecological perspective. An additional goal of this book is to trace the development of that ecological perspective from early crude conceptions to more sophisticated. geobiotic perspcctivc from early crude conceptions to more sophisticated. gcobiotic ideas. The papers are grouped into five sections. the present. All four authors come from biological science backgrounds and employ explicit ecosystem approaches. They view the Great Lakes forest as one which has responded to many factors but differ in their judgments about the future role of man as a manager. 0. Loucks uses information from various techniques. including the analysis ol fossil pollen. tree-rings and varved lake sediments. to conclude that the Great Lakes forest ecosystem has constantly undergone change over the millenia and that perhaps “human interventions in the forest may not have more serious consequences for human beings than for the ever-changing ever-adaptable forest” (p. 31). The other three chapters accord man a much stronger influence as an agent for change. On the one hand E. Bourdo believes that positive intervention in the forest can result in more attractive forests than those which existed before logging; on the other C. and L. Ahlgren. studying the forest since logging, and Gates. tracing wildlife responses. tind great change in species composition and agree that human intervention has been so extensive that constant intervention will be required to prevent permanent modification of this ecosystem. Three chapters by C. Cleland. D. Harkin, and R. Deer. constitute section two. and provide a consideration of the role, impact, and adaptations made by the Woodland Indians of the region; more specifically the experience of the Menomincc Tribe of Wisconsin is examined vis-&vis the forest. T-he six chapters of section three and the two of section four examine the economic. social. and political efTects on the region from the years of rapid cutting in the late nineteenth century. through the period 1920 1960 during which the term “Cutover” wax applied. to the present concern with public amenity. A description of each stud> is not