Fatal land: war, empire, and the Highland soldier in British America, 1756-1783

This thesis examines the experiences and impacts of the deployment of Highland soldiers to North America in the mid to late-eighteenth century. Between 1756 and 1783, Britain sent ten Highland battalions to the North American theatre, where they fought for the duration of both the Seven Years‟ War and the War of American Independence. The pressures of recruiting, utilizing, and demobilizing these men created powerful new forces in the Scottish Highlands, occurring, and in some cases prefiguring, the region‟s severe socio-economic problems. The impact of military contributions to the imperial state also had significant implications for Gaelic self-perception and the politics of loyalty and interest. This thesis asserts the importance of imperial contacts in shaping the development of the Scottish Highlands within the British state. Rejecting the narrative of a centrifugal empire based on military subjugation, this thesis argues that Gaels, of all social groups, constructed their own experiences of empire, having tremendous agency in how that relationship was formed. The British Empire was not constructed only through the extension or strengthening of state apparatus in various geographical spaces. It was formed by the decision of local actors to willingly embrace the perceived advantages of empire. Ultimately, the disproportionately large Highland commitment to military service was a largely negative force in the Highlands. This thesis establishes, however, the importance of political and ideological imperatives which drove these decisions, imperatives that were predicated on inter-peripheral contacts with British America. It establishes the extent to which Highland soldiers willingly ensured the development of British imperialism in the late eighteenth century

‘All spirited likely young lads’: free men of colour, the defence of Jamaica, and subjecthood during the American War for Independence

The American War for Independence provided opportunities across the British Americas for people of African descent to embrace military service as a means of enhancing their rights. In Jamaica wartime disagreements between imperial officials and the planter elite gave free men of colour an opportunity to lay claim to fairer treatment and the rights of subjecthood through military service. By examining a series of unique and unprecedented petitions and recruiting proclamations, this article reconstructs the creation of the Jamaica Rangers in 1782 and reveals how free men challenged the racial hierarchies of the island and coalesced politically a decade before scholars have previously recognised the emergence of community mobilisation

John A. Burnett, The Making of the Modern Scottish Highlands, 1939-1965: Withstanding the ‘colossus of advancing materialism.’

John A. Burnett, The Making of the Modern Scottish Highlands, 1939-1965: Withstanding the ‘colossus of advancing materialism.’ Ulster and Scotland Series. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011. Pp. 312. 978-1-84682-241-4. €55.00

John A. Burnett, The Making of the Modern Scottish Highlands, 1939-1965: Withstanding the ‘colossus of advancing materialism.’

John A. Burnett, The Making of the Modern Scottish Highlands, 1939-1965: Withstanding the ‘colossus of advancing materialism.’ Ulster and Scotland Series. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011. Pp. 312. 978-1-84682-241-4. €55.00

John A. Burnett, <i>The Making of the Modern Scottish Highlands, 1939-1965: Withstanding the ‘colossus of advancing materialism.’</i>

John A. Burnett, The Making of the Modern Scottish Highlands, 1939-1965: Withstanding the ‘colossus of advancing materialism.’ Ulster and Scotland Series. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011. Pp. 312. 978-1-84682-241-4. €55.00

Egypt, Empire, and the Gaelic Literary Imagination

This article presents an edition, translation, and analysis of a Scottish Gaelic song by the Reverend Seumas MacLagain [James McLagan] (1728-1805) about the battle of Alexandria of 1801. This text, which has not received any previous scholarly attention, is a rare illustration of an attempt of a member of the Gaelic intelligentsia to re-frame Gaelic identity and history so as to reconcile them with the agenda of British imperialism. While largely unmentioned in analysis of Gaelic Scotland, the victory in Egypt was a crucial moment that was used by McLagan and others to draw the Gaidhealtachd into a British sphere more completely than ever before. By exploring the motifs, formulas, and devices used by McLagan in his song, and contrasting them with other Gaelic and pan-British approaches to the victory in Egypt, this article challenges assumptions about the nature of Gaelic military song in this era and suggests the importance of British imperialism to the Gaelic literary imagination in the early nineteenth century

Egypt, Empire, and the Gaelic Literary Imagination

This article presents an edition, translation, and analysis of a Scottish Gaelic song by the Reverend Seumas MacLagain [James McLagan] (1728-1805) about the battle of Alexandria of 1801. This text, which has not received any previous scholarly attention, is a rare illustration of an attempt of a member of the Gaelic intelligentsia to re-frame Gaelic identity and history so as to reconcile them with the agenda of British imperialism. While largely unmentioned in analysis of Gaelic Scotland, the victory in Egypt was a crucial moment that was used by McLagan and others to draw the Gaidhealtachd into a British sphere more completely than ever before. By exploring the motifs, formulas, and devices used by McLagan in his song, and contrasting them with other Gaelic and pan-British approaches to the victory in Egypt, this article challenges assumptions about the nature of Gaelic military song in this era and suggests the importance of British imperialism to the Gaelic literary imagination in the early nineteenth century

The United States of America

"The United States of America" in "The Americas", Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature 94 (2010), 171-20