The Scottish Clearances cover art

The Scottish Clearances

A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Scottish Clearances

By: T.M. Devine
Narrated by: Ruth Urquhart
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Eighteenth-century Scotland is famed for generating many of the enlightened ideas which helped to shape the modern world. But there was in the same period another side to the history of the nation. Many of Scotland's people were subjected to coercive and sometimes violent change, as traditional ways of life were overturned by the "rational" exploitation of land use. The Scottish Clearances is a superb and highly original account of this sometimes terrible process, which changed the Lowland countryside forever, as it also did, more infamously, the old society of the Highlands.

This pioneering book is the first to chart this tumultuous saga in one volume, with due attention to evictions and loss of land in both north and south of the Highland line. In the process, old myths are exploded and familiar assumptions undermined. With many fascinating details and the sense of an epic human story, The Scottish Clearances is an evocative memorial to all whose lives were irreparably changed in the interests of economic efficiency.

This is a story of forced clearance, of the destruction of entire communities and of large-scale emigration. Some winners were able to adapt and exploit the new opportunities, but there were also others who lost everything. The clearances created the landscape of Scotland today, but it came at a huge price.

©2018 T.M. Devine (P)2021 Tantor
Great Britain Highlander Scotland England
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Scotland cover art
The Makers of Scotland cover art
The Scots cover art
Scots: The Mither Tongue cover art
Culloden cover art
A Brief History of London cover art
The History of Denmark cover art
How the Old World Ended cover art
Time Travels in Scotland cover art
Strange Tales of Scotland cover art
The Story of Work cover art
How the Scots Invented the Modern World cover art
The Reivers cover art
The Origins of Capitalism and the "Rise of the West" cover art
How the World Became Rich cover art
India Moving cover art

What listeners say about The Scottish Clearances

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    21
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    17
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Clearance

A packed and informative history of Scotland. Lots of information that explains the different experiences of highland and lowland Scotland. Really enjoyed and learned from this!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An essential read

An outsider of Scotland will be confused by the response if they try and repeat some of the place names to native Scots as pronounced in this very good and important book. Some of the Gàidhlig is horrible also. A wee bit of research by the reader wouldn't have gone a miss.

Don't let this put you of. This is one of the most important and necessary books about Scots and our Scottish history ever to have been written.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very good info

very informative. I had to slow it down a tad as there is a lot to pay attention to. And now have bought a physical book as well to revisit. Such an important account, and very useful for my understanding of Scotland on my coming visit to it. History books just talk about chiefs and kings/queens, but the regular folk stuff is more important.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very in depth and interesting

Great book as a comprehensive look at clearance across Scotland. I learnt a lot, especially about the lowlands and central belt, rather than just the famous highland displacements. Some of the Gaelic pronunciation was incorrect, but overall the narrator was good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narrator butchers anything Scottish

Listening to the narrator attempting anything remotely Gaelic is like nails on a chalkboard, had to give up.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Utter rubbish

That lack of truth. It talked about Scotland and Gaelic like they were different things but at this time everyone in Scotland spoke Gaelic, it’s not like it was split into two countries. And there was a massive difference between the highlands and lowlands so of course the clearances and genocide was worse for them.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

ai generated voice

like the book very much but the voice is AI generated and sounds artificial often...really horrible an annoying

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!