A Global Force: War, Identities and Scotland's Diaspora

Between the 1820s and 1914 over two million people emigrated from Scotland, settling primarily in North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. One of the most distinctive ways in which the influence of the Scottish diaspora overseas expressed itself was the formation of military units which identified with Scotland.

This volume provides a comparative overview of the nineteenth century emergence of military Scottishness and explores how the construction and performance of Scottish military identity has evolved in different Commonwealth countries over the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In particular, it looks at the ways in which Scottish volunteer regiments variously sought to draw upon, align themselves with or, at certain key moments, redefine the assertions of martial identity which Highland regiments represented.

• Develops a critical understanding of the complex connections between Scotland and its diasporic communities, addressing wider questions of ethnicity, identity and national belonging
• Provides five conceptual case studies of how Scottish diaspora in different parts of the Commonwealth embraced or rejected Scottish military culture in forging their identities: England; North America; South Africa; Australia & New Zealand
• Weaves the story of Scotland’s global diaspora through the emergent national narratives of Commonwealth nations
• Looks at the operation of ‘military Scottishness’ in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries