Scotland and the First World War

Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Bannockburn

Contributions by Fran Brearton, Michael Brown, Caroline McCracken-Flesher, Robert Crawford, Stefan Goebel, David Goldie, Margaret R. Higonnet, Catriona M.M. MacDonald, Peter Mackay, Graeme Morton, Carol Symes Edited by Gill Plain

Publication date:

28 November 2016

Length of book:

284 pages

Publisher

Bucknell University Press

What did war look like in the cultural imagination of 1914? Why did men in Scotland sign up to fight in unprecedented numbers? What were the martial myths shaping Scottish identity from the aftermath of Bannockburn to the close of the nineteenth century, and what did the Scottish soldiers of the First World War think they were fighting for? Scotland and the First World War: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Bannockburn is a collection of new interdisciplinary essays interrogating the trans-historical myths of nation, belonging and martial identity that shaped Scotland’s encounter with the First World War. In a series of thematically linked essays, experts from the fields of literature, history and cultural studies examine how Scotland remembers war, and how remembering war has shaped Scotland.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Anniversary Culture and the legacy of Bannockburn
Gill Plain

Part I: Anniversary Culture

1. Missing Dates and Magic Numbers: Reflections on 1914
Fran Brearton

2. Bruce, Wallace and the Diminished Present, 1800-1964
Graeme Morton

Part II: Making the Myths of War and Nation

3. “Men Brave And Strong”: Bannockburn, the Auld Alliance and Scottish Martial
Identity in the Late Middle Ages
Michael Brown

4. “Not my land’s hills”: War and the Problem of Scottish Homecoming
Caroline McCracken-Flesher

5. Medieval Battlefields and National Narratives, 1830-1918
Carol Symes

6. Bannockburn after Baston
Robert Crawford

Part III: Making the Memory of the First World War

7. “The Spirit of the Crusaders”: Scottish Peculiarities, British Commonalities and European Convergences in the Memorialisation of the Great War
Stefan Goebel

8. Buchan, Bannockburn and Beyond: popular histories of Scotland’s martial past
Catriona M. M. Macdonald

9. Women, War and Internationalism: Notes towards a Counter-History
Margaret R. Higonnet

10. Freedom from judgement above? Predestination and Cultural Trauma in Scottish Gaelic Poetry of World War I
Peter Mackay

11. Shades of Bruce: Independence and Union in First-World War Scottish Literature
David Goldie

Bibliography

Notes on Contributors