Reviews tagging 'Deportation'

The Unremembered Places: Exploring Scotland's Wild Histories by Patrick Baker

1 review

ailsaod's review against another edition

informative reflective sad fast-paced

3.0

This book was difficult to rate as I found it both very impactful and informative but also rather naff by turns. Each chapter talks about the history of little known places in Scotland (mostly - some are fairly well known!) that share a common feature and theme and the author will visit at least one of these locations and share his personal experience of the visit.

If this book was just these obscure parts of Scottish history this book would be a solid five stars. I am Scottish so I already had a peripheral knowledge of quite a lot of the topics but this book provoked me to think about it properly for the first time. I found the chapter about the clearances particularly powerful and the section about John Paul Jones morbidly fascinating as he was born in a village near my hometown and as such there are various things named after him but I had no idea of who he actually was or the things he did!

Where this book looses me is the author's accounts of visiting these places. He talks about the thoughts he has in these remote, abandoned locations and while I know I would probably have similar thoughts if I were there it feels a bit overly personal to read that kind of thing. It is difficult to relate to such abstract thoughts that come from a very personal experience that different people will internalise in different ways and as such it can come off as trying too hard.

I would definitely read a history book written by Baker but this history/reflective journal hybrid format is not to my taste.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery and Deportation