PDF Summary:How The Scots Invented the Modern World, by Arthur Herman

Scotland is often overlooked in discussions of modern progress, but in How The Scots Invented the Modern World, Arthur Herman argues that Scottish culture, politics, and innovation shaped the modern era. He explores how Scotland's Presbyterian Church created a model of democratic self-governance, and how the Scottish Enlightenment established the foundations of social sciences by linking human nature with historical progress.

Herman traces Scotland's influence across the globe, examining how Scottish immigrants helped build the United States and Canada, and how Scottish doctors, engineers, and inventors advanced medicine, technology, and industry. From the steam engine to antiseptics to modern journalism, Herman shows how Scotland's contributions transformed the world—while also acknowledging the poverty and inequality that persisted within Scotland itself.

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(Shortform note: Herman’s claim that the Scots “changed the fledgling nation from an agrarian society to an industrial juggernaut” is likely an overstatement. Demographic and economic histories of the United States don’t mention the Scots as a particularly influential group in the country’s industrialization. The Scots were one of many groups of immigrants who contributed to the country’s industrialization. The Irish, Germans, and Italians were also significant contributors. The Scots were known for their work ethic and strong morals, but they were not the only group with these qualities. The United States’ transformation from an agrarian society to an industrial juggernaut was a complex process that involved many different factors, including the contributions of various immigrant groups.)

Of the immigrant groups in America, likely only the Jewish community had equal or greater expertise. However, in contrast to Jews and the Irish, Scottish Protestant immigrants did not face religious discrimination. They didn't expect to receive advantages or special treatment, as the English did. They expected to work hard and weren't daunted by the unfamiliar environment. Instead, it featured a recognizable atmosphere: a dominant Anglo-Saxon ruling class in politics and government; an urban middle class, influenced by Anglicization, that was divided among various Protestant groups; Irish laborers crammed into cities expanding with industrialization; and a remote interior ruled by warrior societies about to be supplanted by progress.

(Shortform note: In An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz challenges the traditional narrative of American history, arguing that the United States is a settler-colonial state whose very foundation rests on the violent appropriation of Indigenous lands. She contends that the Indigenous peoples encountered by European invaders were independent nations with their own territories, economies, and diplomatic relations, not scattered bands on an empty frontier. Dunbar-Ortiz argues that the expansion of US power across the continent was not an inevitable process of modernization but a deliberate project of conquest, land seizure, and attempted elimination of Indigenous societies, rationalized through doctrines such as manifest destiny and a civilizational ideology of inevitable “progress.”)

It's understandable that so many Scots aligned themselves with America. They viewed it as a realization of their aspirations and considered Scottish people crucial for its advancement. It was a land where a Scotsman could forge a fresh life from the continent's opportunities, and build a new identity. Anyone with aspirations and ambition could become whatever, or whoever, they chose. A new societal ethos emerged, eventually becoming known globally as both inherently American and distinctly modern.

(Shortform note: The idea that anyone could become whoever they wanted to be in America was only true for some people. The American South was built on the backs of enslaved people, and the American West was built on land taken from Indigenous people. In both cases, the people who were already there were denied the right to self-determination.)

Indeed, it embodies Scottishness, and the Scots in America would further show that the infinite opportunities for this creative self-shaping and quest for personal success needn't result in disorder. They can foster a novel type of communal society that honors everyone’s right to follow their own paths, provided they extend that same respect to others. It is an enlightened community, with echoes of David Hume's secular Golden Rule. However, it's supported by conventional moral principles, a Presbyterian inheritance, as rebar strengthens concrete. Scottish people contributed to shaping the nascent United States. They were ready to demonstrate how it could be successful.

The Scots in America

The American context provided a unique setting for the Scots to demonstrate how individual ambition and communal order could coexist. The American emphasis on personal liberty and self-determination resonated with the Scottish Enlightenment's focus on moral sentiment and voluntary cooperation. The Presbyterian tradition of disciplined association and moral self-regulation provided a framework for channeling individual energies into productive social forms. This combination of Humean moral philosophy and Presbyterian social organization helped create a society where personal success was pursued within a context of mutual respect and shared values, preventing the descent into disorder that unchecked individualism might have produced.

Domestic Applications & Innovations

Herman also highlights the significant role of Scottish people in advancing health services and medicine. Scottish doctors pioneered hygiene and health measures for the public. They established hospitals, formed England's inaugural Board of Health, and organized dedicated wards in hospitals for fever patients. They also mandated sanitizing patient care areas and residences with fever cases. These actions reduced the transmission of infectious diseases and served as a model for other urban areas and health administrators.

(Shortform note: Long before the Scottish doctors, Italian city-states like Venice and Florence had already established permanent plague boards to combat epidemics. These boards were the first to institutionalize the concept of public health, setting a precedent for government-run systems to protect urban populations. In A History of Public Health, George Rosen explains that these early boards were the first to create a continuous, government-organized system for protecting the health of urban populations.)

Scottish doctors also connected unsafe work environments with the transmission of disease and elevated death rates, leading to the notion of government regulation of workplace safety and health. They pioneered the use of chloroform as a surgical anesthetic, established smallpox inoculation, and made antiseptics a standard in medicine in Britain. Their initiatives for public health varied from the English by looking to the private sector for support and capital. They also emphasized the value of education, morality, hygiene, and cleanliness.

Public Health and the Industrial State

The Scottish medical reforms of the 19th century were part of a broader movement in Britain to address the social and health challenges brought about by rapid industrialization. As historian Dorothy Porter explains in Health, Civilization and the State, the rise of public health as a distinct field was closely linked to the emergence of the liberal industrial state. The social disorder, class conflict, and demographic instability caused by urbanization and capitalist development led political and medical elites to develop new statistical and administrative techniques to control the population. Public health became a key tool for social discipline, moral regulation, and legitimizing state authority.

Herman notes that Scots were also instrumental in advancing technology and industry. James Watt improved the steam-powered engine, making it the engine that powered the Industrial Revolution. He applied the idea of using a separate condenser, enabling the engine to sustain a steady movement. In that year, he converted it to rotary motion.

(Shortform note: In The Most Powerful Idea in the World, William Rosen explains how Watt’s separate condenser worked. The condenser was a side chamber that was kept constantly cold and slightly evacuated. When the steam entered the condenser, it was rapidly cooled and condensed into water, creating a partial vacuum. This vacuum helped to draw more steam into the cylinder, increasing the engine’s efficiency.)

The Enlightenment in Scotland codified principles like common sense, gaining knowledge through experience, and establishing scientific laws by testing broad hypotheses with experimentation and iteration. Scientific and technological advancements were crucial to contemporary life. Scots also modernized Britain's naval forces and constructed the groundbreaking Dreadnought battleship in 1902. Scotland was at the forefront of the world economy. Seventy percent of people in Glasgow worked in industrial manufacturing. The Clydebank factory for Singer Sewing Machines ranked among the globe's largest. Coates-Paton, headquartered in Paisley, was the top cotton-thread manufacturer in the world and controlled about 80% of the global market.

(Shortform note: Economic historian Joel Mokyr argues that the Enlightenment created a “culture of improvement” in Britain that led to the Industrial Revolution. Mokyr emphasizes the broader British and European context, but he acknowledges that Scottish thinkers and industrialists were disproportionately influential. He explains that Scottish cities like Glasgow and Paisley were industrial powerhouses, and that Scottish inventors and engineers played key roles in Britain’s economic leadership. Mokyr’s analysis supports Herman’s emphasis on Scotland’s contributions, even as Mokyr stresses the wider British and European context.)

Scots also led British politics. Between 1894 and 1916, three of every five prime ministers were Scots. The Liberal Party, which owed its foundation and ideology to Scots, won a sweeping victory in 1906, taking 58 out of 72 constituencies in Scotland. A Scotsman named Keir Hardie founded the Labour Party. Scotland's landowning families became foundational to Britain's elite in society and politics. Their sons attended the top schools in England: Eton, Harrow, Cambridge, and Oxford. Scotland’s ruling class became indistinguishable from England's elite.

(Shortform note: In The Break-up of Britain, Tom Nairn disputes the idea that “Scots also led British politics” and that “Scotland’s ruling class became indistinguishable from England's elite.” Nairn argues that the Scottish bourgeoisie did not become a genuine partner in a common national project but was converted into a provincial adjunct of an essentially English state, so that Scottish participation in the institutions of power amounted less to sharing sovereignty than to serving as a subordinate, regional stratum of a metropolitan ruling class whose language, outlook and commanding interests remained overwhelmingly English.)

Despite Scotland's industrial development, poverty continued to be an issue. In Glasgow, wages were lower than elsewhere in Britain. Infant mortality was still higher compared to other cities in Britain. Glasgow's deteriorating urban housing was plagued by disease and malnutrition. In 1904 Dundee, a fifth of the 6,000 homes lacked toilets or sanitation. Scotland's schools, which once inspired other English-speaking countries, lagged behind. Scottish universities' curricula remained largely unchanged over the past 300 years. Scotland's top talents were no longer drawn to its major cities. Those who pursued higher learning in the humanities or sciences attended Cambridge, Oxford, or London.

(Shortform note: In The Scottish Nation, historian T. M. Devine argues that Scotland’s integration into the British Empire from the late 19th century led to a significant outflow of the nation’s wealth, enterprise, and political ambition. Scottish landowners, merchants, industrialists, and professionals increasingly invested their capital, built their careers, and sought advancement within a British and imperial framework. This left local government structures and urban welfare and education systems with inadequate resources and limited autonomy to address the social challenges of rapid industrialization and urban growth. The result was a chronic lack of committed leadership and investment in Scotland’s own civic and educational infrastructure.)

In 1872, Scotland became the first place in Britain where Parliament implemented a system mandating primary education. By 1914, a seventh of Scottish children attended secondary school, compared with one-twentieth in England. However, fifteen percent of children in Glasgow never attended school. Scots also pioneered developments in printing and book selling. The Edinburgh Review became the benchmark for serious intellectual culture in the English-speaking world. Scots were trailblazers in tabloid journalism. In 1896, Alfred Harmsworth established the Daily Mail, priced at half a penny per copy, which led to a multitude of similar publications like the Daily Mirror and Daily Express. The most famous Scottish authors excelled in fantasy and escapist literature. Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" thrilled both young readers and adults, and "Kidnapped" and "The Master of Ballantrae" completed the Highland myth initiated by Sir Walter Scott.

The Role of Print in Creating the Modern Public

The Scottish school system, print and tabloid press, and fantasy and escapist literature all fit together in the sense that they are all instruments by which Scots could imagine themselves as belonging to a single modern public. In his book Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson argues that the rise of mass literacy and cheap print in the 18th and 19th centuries allowed people to imagine themselves as part of a single public. This was a radical shift from earlier societies, where most people were illiterate and had little sense of belonging to a larger community beyond their village or region. Anderson argues that the rise of print capitalism created a new kind of public sphere, where people could imagine themselves as part of a single community, even if they never met most of its members. This imagined community was held together by shared experiences of reading the same newspapers, novels, and other printed materials.