Radicalism, Reform and National Identity in Scotland, 1820-1833, by Gordon Pentland

Gordon Pentland’s excellent book offers an innovative approach to politics in the age of reform in British history, by exploring the evolving relationship between England and Scotland through the Reform Act (Scotland) of 1832. By concentrating on the thirteen crucial years after the ‘Radical War’ of 1815–20 in Scotland, Pentland is able to probe in detail the campaign for reform and its political context, the passing of the Act, and its outworking in the first year after its legislation. He concludes that this was a vital period in the development of Scotland’s political position in Britain, exposing various kinds of patriotism through its events. He argues that Scottish national identity was expressed, not in separatism, but in calling for a closer union with England, to the extent that he suggests that the reform campaign in Scotland can be described as ‘Scotland’s first mass unionist-nationalist movement’ (p. 155). For instance, Pentland shows that Scottish reformers wished to acquire ‘English’ liberties through political (and also religious) reform, and that they drew on instances in both English and Scottish history in making their case for reform. Conceptualising British and Scottish identities as wholly discrete is, as he says, ‘inadequate’ (p. 194). On the other hand, Britishness was not simply imposed on Scotland from above: Scots shaped British identity for their own ends, using it to make demands on the British state. The issue cannot, therefore, be reduced to a notion of assimilationist reformers submitting to the English model of a Reform Bill, who were opposed by patriotic anti-reformers. Pentland shows that the flaws in the Scottish Bill arose at least in part from the struggle between English Cabinet ministers, who were trying to conform the Scottish Bill to the English Bill as much as possible, and the Scottish Whigs, who were trying to accommodate Scottish differences of context.

Archaeology · Britishness · Context (archaeology) · Identity (music) · National identity · Nationalism · Patriotism · Political economy · Political radicalism · Political science · Politics · Reform Act · Scots · Sociology · History · Law · Political Systems and Governance · Scottish History and National Identity

• The ‘Spirit of Liberal Reform’

  Open Access•Alegria Benchimol•Scottish historical review/ The…•2020

  Add to list