Great Scottish Heroes - Fifty Scots Who Shaped the World

Stuart Pearson

• Publisher: John Blake
• Year: 2015
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781784186135
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

Which Scottish anti-slavery campaigner lost a son in a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the American Civil War? Was the enemy of Scotland's first 'freedom fighter' not England, but ancient Rome? What was the laboratory accident that led to one of the greatest discoveries in modern medicine? How did the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 influence the legal foundation of the greatest superpower the world has ever seen? Which singing superstar overcame a learning difficulty to become a worldwide inspiration?The answers to these and many other questions can be found in Great Scottish Heroes, covering 2, 000 years of Scottish history and encompassing outstanding leaders in a broad range of pursuits, including the arts, exploration, medicine, sport, religion and politics. Even a brief list of Scottish inventions shows the nation's influence upon our world: television, penicillin, the steam engine, the telephone, the vacuum flask, to name only a few.Scotland has for centuries produced a great number of exceptional, heroic individuals out of all proportion to its small population and geographical size. This concise but wide-ranging book offers biographies of fifty Scottish heroes and heroines, but in truth there are a hundred others, and more, who would qualify for inclusion.These men and women helped to shape the world, and continue to do so today. Great Scottish Heroes shows how they achieved such remarkable success. If you are a Scot by birth, descent, or adoption, this book will make you even prouder of your countrymen. If you are not Scottish, you will wish you were.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• CALGACUS (FIRST CENTURY AD)
• SIR WILLIAM WALLACE (c.1270–1307)
• ROBERT THE BRUCE, KING ROBERT I (1274–1329)
• JOHN KNOX (1514–1572)
• MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (1542–1587)
• JOHN NAPIER (1550–1617)
• JAMES VI OF SCOTLAND AND I OF ENGLAND (1566–1625)
• DAVID HUME (1711–1776)
• FLORA MACDONALD (1722–1790)
• ADAM SMITH (1723–1790)
• JOHN KNOX WITHERSPOON (1723–1794)
• NIEL GOW (1727–1807)
• ROBERT ADAM (1728–1792)
• JAMES WATT (1736–1819)
• JOHN PAUL JONES (1747–1792)
• SIR HENRY RAEBURN (1756–1823)
• THOMAS TELFORD (1757–1834)
• ROBERT BURNS (1759–1796)
• LACHLAN MACQUARIE (1761–1824)
• SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE (1762–1820)
• CHARLES MACINTOSH (1766–1843)
• CAROLINA OLIPHANT, LADY NAIRNE (1766–1845)
• SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771–1832)
• ROBERT STEVENSON (1772–1850)
• THOMAS COCHRANE, 10TH EARL OF DUNDONALD (1775–1860)
• SIR DAVID BREWSTER (1781–1868)
• DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813–1872)
• MARGARET OLIPHANT (1828–1897)
• ISABELLA ELDER (1828–1905)
• ANDREW CARNEGIE (1835–1919)
• JOHN MUIR (1838–1914)
• SIR JAMES DEWAR (1842–1923)
• ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (1847–1922)
• KATE CRANSTON (1849–1934)
• ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850–1894)
• SIR PATRICK GEDDES (1854–1932)
• DOUGLAS HAIG, 1ST EARL HAIG (1861–1928)
• DR ELSIE INGLIS (1864–1917)
• CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868–1928)
• JOHN BUCHAN, 1ST BARON TWEEDSMUIR (1875–1940)
• DANIEL LAIDLAW (1875–1950)
• SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING (1881–1955)
• HUGH DOWDING, 1ST BARON DOWDING (1882–1970)
• JOHN LOGIE BAIRD (1888–1946)
• SIR JOHN ‘JACKIE’ STEWART (b.1939)
• SIR ALEX FERGUSON (b. 1941)
• ANN GLOAG (b. 1942)
• HAZEL COSGROVE, LADY COSGROVE (b. 1946)
• SUSAN BOYLE (b. 1961)
• JOANNE ROWLING (b. 1965)
• BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES
• Plates
• About the Author
• Copyright