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Book
Review |
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Grosjean, Alexia and Steve Murdoch, eds. Scottish Communities Abroad in
the Early Modern Period (Leiden: Brill,
2005). 417 pp, $199.00.
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From the inception of world history as a discrete field of historical study,
the issue of migration has been a central topic that has attracted a great
deal of research. Scottish Communities Abroad in the Early Modern Period,
edited by Alexia Grosjean and Steve Murdoch, is a recent addition to migration
literature that seeks to break free from a national lens and instead recognize
and describe the numerous complexities and sometimes contradictions hidden
in the story of Scottish migration. The editors chose to focus on the early
modern period and most of the contributions concern the 17th century,
a period that saw massive amounts of both internal and external European migration.
Issues surrounding community building are paramount and, according to the
editors, the selections in the text "confirm the dependency of the communities
on other institutions in order that they could flourish." (24) |
1 |
The book contains contributions from sixteen authors who in some cases worked
together to create eleven discrete chapters. The editors chose to divide these
contributions into three sections. The first, "Migrant Destinations, Colonies,
and Plantations," is comprised of three articles that examine Scottish migration
to what the editors describe as the "near-abroad," the "middle-abroad," and
the "far-abroad." In each situation, types of migration, community development,
and identity formation are different. For instance, an examination of Scottish
migration to Ireland written by Patrick Fitzgerald represents an attack on
widely held conceptions of the migration and notes that settlers were not
exclusively Lowland Scottish Protestants, nor did they limit themselves to
settling in escheated areas of Ulster. Instead, Fitzgerald sees a pattern
of migration that integrated western Scotland with northern Ireland and was
conceptualized not so much as a purely Scottish but instead a "British" enterprise.
Likewise, in Waldemar Kowalski's piece exploring Scottish settlement in Poland,
the local population did not always consider migrating Scots as a discrete
group; instead, the status and wealth of the migrants often influenced the
view of the Polish population. Particular characteristics of Polish religious
tolerance meant that Scots could become citizens, further weakening the degree
of community formation. Indeed, the "brotherhoods" that did form within the
Scottish community were largely created by the Scottish elite who wished to
maintain some control over the relatively larger numbers of itinerant Scots
traders. Finally, David Dobson, contributing the only article concerned with
events outside of Europe, challenges the notion that Scots were unwanted interlopers
in English colonial expansion to the Americas. On the contrary, American colonial
ventures often created a sense of "Britishness" that predated the official
Act of Union in 1707. |
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The selections in the next section, "Located Communities," are concerned
with how Scottish expatriate communities formed in various regions of northern
and eastern Europe. In an article examining the Scottish community in Bergen,
Nina Østby Pedersen notes that good relations between the Stuarts and the
Oldenburgs encouraged Scottish settlement. Additionally, the presence of a
threatened and hostile Hansa trading community led to an increased sense of
Scottish identity. This contrasts with Gothenburg, where Scots counted among
positions on the town council, had deep ties to both the business and military
community, and, as evidenced through marriage records, had a somewhat easier
time assimilating. Religious issues were often crucial in determining patterns
of settlement and expatriate/local relations. Rimantas éirgulis contributed
an article that explores how the desire of local magnates in Lithuania to
support the Reformation led to a large influx of Scottish settlers, drawn
not only by religious toleration but by the opportunity to trade free from
Polish harassment. As the political situation in Kėdainiai changed, so
too did the ability of the Scots to maintain their community. Migration also
led to changes in identity formation, as Kathrin Zickerman makes clear in
her article regarding settlement in Hamburg. Removed from the particularist
environment of Great Britain, the English and the Scots often worked together
in Hamburg and created one of the first instances of a British identity.
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The final section, titled "Communities of Mind and Interest" aims to explore
the intellectual impact of expatriate communities. In one of the more intriguing
contributions, Ginny Gardner argues that Scottish exiles fleeing from the
Restoration formed a discreet community in the Netherlands. They actively
resisted assimilation and were instrumental in not only generating local support
for an invasion of Britain by William of Orange, but were also key in preparing
friends and families back home for just such an event. Indeed, after the Glorious
Revolution, the community continued to function back at home in Scotland.
In the realm of education, Esther Mijers illustrates how the Scottish student
community, while dependant on the Scottish trading community, remained quite
separate from them. They were not in any way cohesive and religious and class
differences determined the choice of school far more than their identity as
Scots. Finally, Andrew Little contributed an article that discusses the integration
of Scottish men into foreign navies. His general conclusion is that a sense
of British identity was dependant on social class, with officers of both English
and Scottish descent much more willing to identify themselves as British compared
with common sailors of both groups. |
4 |
This book represents the combined efforts of over a dozen authors well versed
in their fields. As such, it is a work of careful and meticulous scholarship.
Both primary and secondary sources amply support all the articles and many
of the authors spent a great deal of time collating large amounts of quantitative
data in order to prove their hypotheses. Still, it is perhaps the overwhelming
amount of detail that limits the text. Many of the authors spend a great deal
of time simply proving the existence of a Scottish community and describing
its composition. There is often little in the way of analysis until the last
pages of a selection. It appears that the editors struggled with this as well,
as the introduction and final chapter that try to summarize and interpret
the work seem slightly forced. The use of this text in teaching appears to
be limited, as the selections, focused on specific places and times, are filled
with so much supporting data that their utilization in a world history course
would be counterproductive. The one exception would be a course on migration,
where this text could serve as an example of the complexities surrounding
the topic. It would also have been beneficial, particularly in the world history
context, for a deeper examination of Scottish communities outside of Europe,
especially as the stated intent is to consider migration more broadly. |
This said, Scottish Communities Abroad in the Early Modern Period
does contribute to the field. It reminds historians not to treat migrations
as a monolithic structure. Instead, there are various reasons, even among
members of the same ethnicity or nation, why individuals migrate, and these
reasons are often more pragmatic than historians would like to acknowledge.
We should not consider national origin as the only, or even the primary, source
of identity for migrants. In just the few examples covered in the text, it
seems clear that confessional differences as well as variations in class often
had just as an important effect, if not more important, than the fact that
migrants shared a Scottish origin. We must also recognize that reasons for
migration can affect community development. In the case of Scottish students,
there was an active desire to separate from other Scots and thus no community
formed. However, in the case of the exiles, community cohesion was unusually
strong, allowing for its maintenance even back in Scotland. Conditions in
the communities that the migrants settled in also determined cohesion. Generally,
the contributors find that when conditions allowed it, many Scottish migrants
had no problems integrating into the wider community, especially when this
gained them privileges that would be beneficial. The conclusions of the book
are quite useful in the world historical context and thus, despite its limited
geographic coverage, the text does add to the wider field of migration studies.
In summation, the most important contribution of this book is its plea to
recognize the complexity and contingency of migration. |
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Aaron Whelchel
Washington State University
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