How the Scots Invented the Modern World; The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It

New York: Three Rivers Press. First Paperback Edition [stated]. Sixth printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. viii, 472 pages. Occasional Footnotes. Sources and Guide for Further Reading. Index. Cover has minor wear and soiling. Arthur L. Herman (born 1956) is an American historian, currently serving as a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. Herman received his B.A. from the University of Minnesota and M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins University. He spent a semester abroad at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. His 1984 dissertation research dealt with the political thought of early-17th-century French Huguenots. Herman taught at Sewanee: The University of the South, George Mason University, Georgetown and The Catholic University of America. He was the founder and coordinator of the Western Heritage Program in the Smithsonian's Campus on the Mall lecture series. His book, How the Scots Invented the Modern World, was a New York Times bestseller. In 2008, he added to his body of work Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age, a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It (or The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots invention of the Modern World) is a non-fiction book written by American historian Arthur Herman. The book examines the origins of the Scottish Enlightenment and what impact it had on the modern world. Herman focuses principally on individuals, presenting their biographies in the context of their individual fields and also in terms of the theme of Scottish contributions to the world. The book is divided into two parts. The first part, Epiphany, consists of eight chapters and focuses on the roots, development, and impact of the Scottish Enlightenment on Scotland and Great Britain. The second part, Diaspora, focuses on the impacts of Scots on events, the world, and industries. Most Scots who did fight in the militias were the most capable because many were the same refugee families from the 1745 Jacobite rising. Herman claims that the Scottish School of Common Sense influenced much of the American declaration of independence and constitution.