Ewen Cameron explores the political debate between unionism, liberalism, socialism and nationalism, and the changing political relationship between Scotland and the United Kingdom. He sets Scottish experience alongside the Irish, Welsh and European, and considers British dimensions of historical change - involvement in two world wars, imperial growth and decline, for example - from a Scottish perspective. He relates political events to trends and movements in the economy, culture and society of the nation’s regions - borders, lowlands, highlands, and islands. Underlying the history, and sometimes impelling its ambitions, are the evolution and growth of national self-confidence and identity which fundamentally affected Scotland’s destiny in the last century. Dr Cameron ends by considering how such forces may transform it in this one. Like the period it describes this book has politics at its heart. The recent upsurge of scholarship and publication, backed by the author’s extensive primary research, underpin its vivid and well-paced narrative.

"This is a strong addition to the New Edinburgh History of Scotland series...one that will serve as the standard survey on the twentieth-century Scotland for decades to come." - Canadian Journal of History

"This is a dense political study, but the best of its kind, with enough social history to explicate the changes underway. The research is superb, and the full, up-to-date bibliography alone makes this book worth the price. Essential." - Choice

"This is a dense political study, but the best of its kind, with enough social history to explicate the changes underway. The research is superb, and the full, up-to-date bibliography alone makes this book worth the price. Essential." - Choice

"Cameron’s book will be an essential reading for anyone wishing to seriouslyengage with late modern Scottish history. It will feature on all reading lists and I can already see the pencil defacement of the book by undergraduates, which is in itself a tribute to the author, though a nuisance to other readers." - Contemporary British History

"This is a highly readable book that is full of valuable insights and is a significant landmark in the development of Scottish historiography as it enters the twenty-first century." - English Historical Review, vol CXXVII, no 525

"These are only minor criticisms of a book which is well written and packed with historical detail and shrewd analysis. The author has avoided the prickly trap which forms his title and has produced a book that steers skillfully between the twin dangers of overemphasizing Scottish distinctiveness and squeezing Scotland's past into an artificial 'British' framework. It will surely become a standard work for those seeking to understand, research or teach Scotland's 20th century. - History Scotland - Nov/Dec 2010

"Cameron is a skilled story-teller, able to weave simultaneous strands of history together… An absorbing and insightful history of modern Scottish politics." - International Review of Scottish Studies

"He [Cameron] is a marvellous and masterly guide. This book is one of the most factually rich accounts of Scotland's most recent history one could hope for, and is a valuable addition to existing work in this area... Dr. Cameron's mastery of the literature is impressive and the book's bibliography is itself a most useful source for scholars of this period.... The rich factual content of this work will, however, ensure its longevity on our bookshelves. Good scholarship never goes out of fashion." - Scottish Review of Books