The Isles of Lewis and Harris
A Study in British Community
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4639361 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R M (0009-0004-2360-7400), Arthur Geddes |
| Year | 1955 |
| Volume | 121 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 517 |
| Publication date | 1955-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geographical Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-7398 • E-ISSN: 1475-4959 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1791764 |
| OpenAlex | W2150087923 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
THE ISLES OF LEWIS AND HARRIS: A study in British Community. By Arthur Geddes. Edinburgh University Publications: Geography and Sociology No. 2. Edinburgh University Press, 1955. 9X5*2 inches; xvi + 340 pages; maps, illustrations, diagrams. 44s first one-third of book, styled Island, Work and People, contains a geo? graphical survey, which is almost entirely a verbatim reproduction, with some alterations in sequence, of articles published by author elsewhere, particularly in Geographical Magazine. handsome folded coloured map of vegetation appears to differ from old original only in that words Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1936 have been deleted from top. reviewer has not attempted to ascertain how much of remainder of book is original. Most reluctantly reviewer must express his profound disappointment with this book. An enormous amount of miscellaneous information by no means confined to Lewis has been assembled, and while a logical enough set of chapter headings and sub-divisions is used as a framework, fragments appear to have been stuffed into it over thirty years in which book has been in preparation. first twenty-five of thirty-seven pages of chapter I, for example, entitled Environment and Land? scape, are concerned with house types, size of farm labour team, language, social organization, migrations, economic history, administrative boundaries, etc. Digressions and irrelevancies of all degrees abound: for example, we are given a description of Iona Community; we are reminded of derivation of word bible and there are some remarkably banal passages of padding such as the team may be 'small,' 'medium' or 'large' (p. 18); 'The difficulties of soil and sea and of whole economic situation are great, and must be understood (p. 25); 11th November came St. Martin's Day, and in December Christmas once again (p. 166). On other hand influence of centuries of Norse domination of islands is barely referred to. Over and over, fact of communal working of land and of other co? operation in rural activities is laboured as if they were peculiar to Lewis instead of being characteristic of simple and small-scale communities every where. Welsh mining village or an East End back street can probably produce as much sense of community as any crofting township. More seriously, there is confusion of time and place: it is not always clear whether text refers to present or past, Lewis, Hebrides, Scotland or North and West. There are some quite remarkable assertions with no attempt at proof, for example (on p. 104) Yet different communities are distinguished by marked racial types or strains. What constitutes racial types or strains? How are they dis? tinguished? On p. 205 The possess common sense, keen observation, ready wits and accurate memory. Nowhere is it explained just who is The Gael but throughout most of volume is idealized, as above, to a nauseating extent. Whatever is good is ascribed to them, whatever is bad to government or to others outside Gaelic pale. To author's credit it must be added that this attitude is dropped in latter chapters and some quite serious Gaelic departures from grace are recorded
Genealogy · Geography · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Rural development and sustainability · Scottish History and National Identity
| Citations per year | 0.13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1987 - 2014 (28) |
| Highly cited | No |