PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

A characterisation of Scottish identity and nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century as proposed by many scholars from the modernist school is inappropriate: it ignores the cultural and historical dimension of Scottish nationalism. By identifying the problems of the modernist approach, this thesis develops a comprehensive conceptualisation of identity and nationalism. It is based on a model of concentric loyalties and incorporates the nation's history, ethnie and culture, thus providing a new framework for the study of Scottish identity and nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century that lies outside of the "political". Despite the initial hostility of many Scots to the Union, it helped to maintain a substantial degree of Scottish autonomy which, combined with the disintegration of the Jacobite threat after the rebellion of 1745, the threat posed by "the Other" and the material benefits the Union eventually brought, helped silence anti-Union protest and facilitated the emergence of a new "Britishness". But Scottish distinctiveness was never lost. Apart from the traditional pillars of Scottish society that continued to underpin Scottish identity, it was the Scots' participation in the Empire that became central to the continuous construction of "Scottishness". The imperial partnership facilitated the creation of a form of popular imperialism that shaped Scottish identity within an essentially British frame: the Empire helped to preserve Scottish national identity in the British state and was, thus, a central factor of reconciliation with the Union. Within this context, the thesis investigates in a case study how the "National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights" interpreted the Scottish nation, its culture and its history; the NAVSR was chosen because it was the first coherent Scottish national movement. The study of the NAVSR shows how nationalist arguments were developed within a unionist frame, i.e. a pronounced loyalty to the Union of 1707, the British state and the Empire, without neglecting Scottish distinctiveness. The thesis concludes that the NAVSR could use the Scots' dual identity (to both the British state and the Scottish nation) to assert a successful Scottish mid-nineteenth century nationalism in the form of the apparent oxymoron of "unionist nationalism" for which the imperial partnership, a positive interpretation of Scottish history, the nation's myths and culture were crucial.