John Prebble Writer

[muirkirkca]

One aspect of the Clearances that apparently overdone was that emigrants from Scotland were transported to Canada in the most appalling of sailing ships. A couple of historical presenters as the Scottish Studies spring and fall colloquiums made this point - A number of ships made several crossings with emigrants on board and returned with materials from the colony i.e. wood, furs etc. The Irish didn't fare nearly as well with the coffin ships and high death rates and this source was used in the Clearances.

Anyway both my Scottish ( 1831) and Irish ( 1855 ) ancestors made it successfully to south-west Ontario and were primarily done in by cholera.

Interesting books however.

[Mike_Oettle]

Interesting to see that the socialists dislike Prebble. From my point of view, that puts him even higher in my estimation.
I read his trilogy back in the ’70s, and still have the paperbacks, as well as The Lion in the North. I reviewed John Prebble’s Scotland (a rave review), and am rather put out that my copy of it was snaffled.
Prebble put his pro-Scottish fervour down to having grown up in a Scottish township in Canada.
For high school he was sent to a boarding establishment in Kent, where the school uniform included a black tie. He rebelled against this and wore a tartan tie instead. The only other boy to join him in this was, ironically, a Jew.
One obviously has to read other authors to obtain a balanced viewpoint, but I recommend Prebble highly.
Regards,
Mike

[ThistleDown]

We are a fairly melancholy race and often prefer deprivation and hardship in tales of our lives, rather than choice and spirit, don't we?

The issues of Prebble's bias are more apparent in The Clearances than in either of the other two in the trilogy. His political leaning as a base for his work is questioned by historians, but more important is the poorness of his research. Muirkirkca refers to his use of Irish emigration histories rather than Scottish; that sort of selective and inaccurate sourcing is a problem in many of his works, but is much more obvious in The Clearances.

To gain a balanced understanding of the rapid increase and subsequent decrease in the population of The Highlands over two hundred years it would be best to read From Chiefs to Landlords by Dodgshon, Bumstead's The People's Clearance and The Highland Clearances by McKenzie than to take Prebble's single commercial work as more than a "popular" history of that sad period.

[BobsYourUncle]

We are a fairly melancholy race and often prefer deprivation and hardship in tales of our lives, rather than choice and spirit, don't we?

The issues of Prebble's bias are more apparent in The Clearances than in either of the other two in the trilogy. His political leaning as a base for his work is questioned by historians, but more important is the poorness of his research. Muirkirkca refers to his use of Irish emigration histories rather than Scottish; that sort of selective and inaccurate sourcing is a problem in many of his works, but is much more obvious in The Clearances.

To gain a balanced understanding of the rapid increase and subsequent decrease in the population of The Highlands over two hundred years it would be best to read From Chiefs to Landlords by Dodgshon, Bumstead's The People's Clearance and The Highland Clearances by McKenzie than to take Prebble's single commercial work as more than a "popular" history of that sad period.

Here's what I do when funds are sufficient: when Rex recommends a book, I search for the titles on Amazon, click, and wait for delivery. Thank you, Rex.

[ThistleDown]

Oh dear oh dear! Thank you, Macpherson-cousin sir, and I shall try never to lead you too far astray with my recommendations.

[MacSpadger]

Mutiny is another Prebble book well worth a read.

I began reading Prebble's books in the 1970's as a teenager in Scotland. At that time, he seemed to be writing about issues that Scottish writers wouldn't, or couldn't, touch.

[greenman11]

I thank all for thier fair and impartial observances concerning this writer.
Historical writing is always at the mercy of the slant that the author imbues. I always chuckle when I remember my sophmore history teacher related to us that the South really won the US Civil War.
Standing on either side of the question there is a totally different perspective.

Regards to all,

[macwilkin]

I thank all for thier fair and impartial observances concerning this writer.
Historical writing is always at the mercy of the slant that the author imbues. I always chuckle when I remember my sophmore history teacher related to us that the South really won the US Civil War.
Standing on either side of the question there is a totally different perspective.

Regards to all,

Well, technically, if you look at the history of the "Redeemer" Democrats & Reconstruction...but that's for another forum.

While no historian can escape their point-of-view and bias, there are a number of good historians who do try to be as objective as possible.

T.

[Lallans]

Mutiny is another good Prebble read. I started reading Prebble's book in the 1970's when I was a teenager in Scotland. He seemed to be writing about subjects that people wanted to know about, but that most native Scottish writers wouldn't touch.

It happens, after you get to the rude colonies...

[ThistleDown]

Mutiny is another Prebble book well worth a read.

I began reading Prebble's books in the 1970's as a teenager in Scotland. At that time, he seemed to be writing about issues that Scottish writers wouldn't, or couldn't, touch.

Yes, to all appearances, but you have to realize that these issues were the subjects of literally thousands of treatises before John Prebble and other late-twentieth century popular press writers came on the scene. I'm not decrying Prebble's thoroughly enjoyable writing, but I am pointing out that the subjects he wrote about have been addressed with far greater knowledge and devotion to historical accuracy by others before and after him.