Set Adrift Upon the World by James Hunter

Set Adrift Upon the World by James Hunter

Winner of Saltire Scottish History Book of the Year 2016 They would be better dead, they said, than set adrift upon the world. But set adrift they were - thousands of them, their communities destroyed, their homes demolished and burned. Such were the Sutherland Clearances, an extraordinary episode, involving the deliberate depopulation of much of a Scottish county. What was done in the course of that episode was planned and carried out by a small group of men and one woman. Most of those involved wrote a great deal about their actions, intentions and feelings, and much of it has been preserved. There are no equivalent collections of material from those whose communities ceased to exist. Their feelings and fears are harder to access, but they are by no means irrecoverable. In this book James Hunter tells the story of the Sutherland Clearances. His researches took him to archives in Scotland, England and Canada, to the now deserted straths of Sutherland, to the frozen shores of Hudson Bay. The result is a gripping, moving, definitive account of a people's struggle for survival in the face of tragedy and disaster which includes experiences which have not featured in any previous such account.

'a moving, gripping, definitive account of a struggle for survival'

* Scots Magazine *

'Rarely have the clearances been written about so evocativelyHunter’s method and his empathy with those involved speaks to us with elegant restraint in an account that sweeps from the Sutherland straths to the struggles of those forced to seek new lives in North America'

* Saltire Society *

'Hunter unravels and leads us through [the clearances] with the sharpest of eyes for telling details. His account is detailed and unsparing. His fellow-feeling for the cleared people is unmistakable…[he] is careful to present the evidence for all he records. No assertion is left unqualified'

* London Review of Books *

'[Hunter’s] scholarship is breathtaking'

* Herald *

'The best Scottish book I've read, not just in 2016, but probably in recent years. Hunter weaves a narrative which crosses continents and centuries as, in his own recent journey, he follows in the footsteps of cleared Sutherland emigrants to Winnipeg and onwards to the frozen expanses of Hudson Bay in what is a very compelling narrative underpinned by the authority of meticulous research'

* Bottle Imp, Best Book of 2016 *

James Hunter is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of the Highlands and Islands and was its first Director of the Centre for History. The author of eleven books about the Highlands and Islands, he has also been active in the public life of the area.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781780272689
ISBN 10	1780272685
Title	Set Adrift Upon the World
Author	James Hunter
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Birlinn General
Year published	2015-10-21
Number of pages	288
Prizes	Winner of Saltire Scottish History Book of the Year 2016
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable