Reviews
[A] well-researched, enjoyable and fascinating read
Scottish Field
Fry is lively, provocative and pleasure to read
Scotsman
A great introduction to the pioneering legacy of the Scottish Victorian era ... bringing the theatre of Scottish history to life with an incredible eye to detail
The Lady
[N]ever knowingly understating his case, Fry spins a bold, lively, and readable tale [...] Written with flair' -
BBC History magazine
Mr Fry has some excellent insights [...] There is much to appreciate in this erudite tome. As a primer on the forthcoming debate, it is a fine sounding board
Country Life
a forceful reminder not only of the great Victorian city's attempts to enforce lasting change but also of how far we have come
The Herald
About the Book
War opened and closed Scotland's greatest century: a pitiless part in the defeat of Naploeon in 1815, a huge blood-sacrifice for the sake of victory from 1914. In between came the greatest contributions to the progress and happiness of the rest of mankind that the Scots have ever made - in everything from the combine harvester to the mackintosh to anaesthesia. It was a supremely successful achieving society yet one not without deep flaws, in its urban poverty, its destruction of the environment, its religious intolerance, its moral hypocrisy, its crushing of Highland culture.
Michael Fry shows, with an emphasis always on the human story, how a succession of deep crises undermined the usually tranquil and prosperous surface of life in Victorian Scotland to leave a legacy of paradox that the modern nation has even today yet to overcome.
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