History of Everyday Life in Twentieth Century Scotland

Over the twentieth century Scots' lives changed in fast, dramatic and culturally significant ways. By examining their bodies, homes, working lives, rituals, beliefs and consumption, this volume exposes how the very substance of everyday life was composed, tracing both the intimate and the mass changes that the people endured. Using novel perspectives and methods, chapters range across the experiences of work, art and death, the way Scots conceived of themselves and their homes, and the way the 'old Scotland' of oppressive community rules broke down from mid-century as the country reinvented its everyday life and culture. This volume brings together leading cultural historians of twentieth-century Scotland to study the apparently mundane activities of people's lives, traversing the key spaces where daily experience is composed to expose the controversial personal and national politics that ritual and practice can generate.Key features: *Contains an overview of the material changes experienced by Scots in their everyday lives during the course of the century *Focuses on some of the key areas of change in everyday experience, from the way Scots spent their Sundays to the homes in which they lived, from the work they undertook to the culture they consumed and eventually the way they died. *Pays particular attention to identity as well as experience

In any number of ways, this is a welcome and stimulating book. As one would expect, each chapter is informed by deep familiarity with both the secondary literature and a wide range of primary materials, making it a valuable jumping-off point for further research (something which is further facilitated by the ubiquitous lists of supplementary reading). Moreover, the book is heavily infused with an interdisciplinary ethos. In a number of chapters, conventional historical scholarship overlaps with sociology and cultural studies. Even more striking is the broad array of methodologies on display. -- Allan Kennedy, University of Stirling History Scotland In any number of ways, this is a welcome and stimulating book. As one would expect, each chapter is informed by deep familiarity with both the secondary literature and a wide range of primary materials, making it a valuable jumping-off point for further research (something which is further facilitated by the ubiquitous lists of supplementary reading). Moreover, the book is heavily infused with an interdisciplinary ethos. In a number of chapters, conventional historical scholarship overlaps with sociology and cultural studies. Even more striking is the broad array of methodologies on display.

Lynn Abrams is Professor of Gender History at the University of Glasgow. Her current research focuses on the social practices of masculinity in Scotland and on theories of oral history. She is convenor of Women's History Scotland. Callum G. Brown is Professor of Religious and Cultural History at the University of Dundee. He is a past editor of the Journal of Scottish Historical Studies. Linda Fleming undertook postgraduate studies (funded by the AHRC) at the University of Glasgow, and obtained her PhD in 2005. Her thesis examined the operation of gender in the formation of the Jewish community in Glasgow over the period 1880 to 1950. From 2001, she contributed teaching on undergraduate courses within the departments of Modern History and Economic and Social History at Glasgow. She joined the SCOB team in 2006 as a researcher for the Scottish Readers Remember project and contributes teaching at Napier on the history of reading, and on oral history methodology. Linda's wider research interests include the social and cultural history of modern Scotland, British women's history in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the theory and application of oral history. She is a member of the Steering Committee for Women's History Scotland. Arthur J. McIvor is Reader in History, University of Strathclyde.