By Dan Flynn

The Academy Award winning epic Braveheart concludes with William Wallace yelling "Freedom!" as he is being executed. Wallace, we are informed, did not die in vain. His heroism in victory at Stirling Bridge and in defeat at Falkirk inspired generations of Scots to rid their land of the English. Shortly after his death in 1305, the Scots gained their freedom from their oppressors to the south.

This is not the Scotland that Arthur Herman celebrates in How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything In It. To the contrary, Scotland's triumphant moment came four centuries after Wallace's death, according to Herman, when Scotland welcomed-not threw off-the English. "In the span of a single generation it would transform Scotland from a Third World country into a modern society and open up a cultural and social revolution," How the Scots Invented the Modern World asserts. "Far from finding themselves slaves to the English, as opponents had prophesied, Scots experienced an unprecedented freedom and mobility." While its title intentionally embraces the Scotch tradition of boasts and exaggeration, How the Scots Invented the Modern World makes a strong case that the Scots, more than any other people, are responsible for the world after the Enlightenment.

What followed unification was not merely a Scottish renaissance, but a revolution in thought that changed the entire world.

Adam Smith impacted the economic sphere more than any other thinker, including Karl Marx. His Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations introduced the idea of "an invisible hand" guiding economic matters and won over generations with the idea that prosperity's best friend is a government staying out of economic matters. Herman contends that Smith's "real point was not that a market based order was perfect or even perfectible. Rather, it was more beneficial, and ultimately more rational, than ones put together by politicians and rulers, who are themselves creatures of their own passions and whims." Today, the economic systems of much of the West and the Far East owe a debt to Smith.

Herman labels one of Smith's mentors, David Hume, "modernity's first great philosopher". "In all governments," Hume is quoted, "there is a perpetual intestine struggle, open or secret, between Authority and Liberty, and neither of them can ever absolutely prevail in the contest." Keeping the correct balance, Hume believed, was the purpose of politics.

In literature, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Boswell, and Sir Walter Scott captivated audiences through novels, biographies, and poetry.

Modern notions of democracy, too, have Scottish origins. "The people have the right to confer royal authority upon whomever they wish," Scotsman George Buchanan wrote in the 17th century. "This is the sort of view we are used to ascribing to John Locke; in fact, it belongs to a Presbyterian Scot from Stirlingshire writing more than a hundred years earlier," Herman observes. The Scottish had a much more concrete effect on democracy in Great Britain. The Reform Bill of 1832 that greatly expanded the suffrage would not have been passed without the votes and tactics of Scottish Members of Parliament. "Exactly 125 years earlier, the Scottish old regime had abolished itself," Herman observes. "Now the roles had been reversed. Scottish ideas and brinksmanship had toppled the English old regime, and nailed together a constitutional formula suitable for a modern nation, both north and south."

How was it that the inhabitants of the northern extremity of Great Britain were able to have this disproportionate effect on world affairs? One answer is that the Scots were the first nation to implement universal education. "Scotland's literacy rate would be higher than any other country by the end of the eighteenth century," the book points out.

Educational opportunities for all Scots would have great benefits for all mankind. Perfecting the steam engine, introducing inoculation to fight smallpox, inventing street lamps, devising the system of time zones, and discovering a simple method to prevent scurvy were all products of the Scottish imagination.

With time, Scotland was itself not big enough for the Scots. Caledonians immigrated in droves to the New World and played key roles in the furthest outposts of that Empire on which the sun never set.

A third of all signers of the Declaration of Independence were Scottish and great presidents such as Jackson and Polk also derived their ancestry from Scotland. In Canada, "North Britons" played a much greater role in its founding. A Scot, Alexander MacKenzie, crossed the Canadian Rockies and made it to the Pacific a full-decade before Lewis and Clark. A Scot also launched the Canadian Pacific Railway, Canada's first transcontinental rail line. Of the ten men who presided over the Canadian Confederation in 1867, eight were Scots.

Some of the Scotch imprint on North America, however, was not a proud one. A disproportionately high number of loyalists to the crown were of Scottish descent during the American Revolution. The derisive terms "redneck" and "cracker" both came from the Scottish language and were initially applied to Scots. One of these rednecks, a Scottish Virginian named William Lynch, disregarded courts by summarily executing suspected criminals and gave his name to a practice that haunted America for nearly two centuries.

Most Highlanders transported to the New World were not "rednecks." Patrick Henry famously shouted, "Give me liberty or give me death!" Francis Scott Key penned The Star Spangled Banner. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Andrew Carnegie revolutionized American industry. More than any other man, the founder of U.S. Steel is responsible for moving America from a backwater republic to the richest nation in the history of mankind. Carnegie also did much to dispel the stubborn stereotype that the Scots were cheap. "The man who dies rich dies disgraced," he famously claimed. He did his best to live up to his maxim-a difficult task for a man of his wealth-and established a university, 2,800 libraries, and numerous cultural centers (e.g., Carnegie Hall).

The life of David Livingstone might be thought of as a microcosm of the Scottish experience. Born to a poor family near Glascow, Livingstone worked fourteen hour days in the factory at the age of ten. As he worked, he attended night school, eventually becoming a doctor. Years before reporter Henry Stanley immortalized Livingstone by asking, "Mr. Livingstone, I presume?" the Scottish doctor travelled to Africa with hopes of curing the sick and spreading Christianity. He did more than that. He helped free slaves and illuminate the Dark Continent for Westerners. Soon after arriving in Africa he was mauled by a lion and came down with malaria. Like the typical Scotsman, he persevered. The beneficial impact of his work was not felt in Scotland, but elsewhere in the world.

One who takes pride in his Scottish ancestry may view How the Scots Invented the Modern World as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is a book that celebrates the Scots and credits them with many of the intellectual and technological advancements that brought about our modern world. On the other hand, the book asserts that they were only able to accomplish this by abandoning much of their cultural heritage. The 1707 agreement to unite Scotland and England dissolved Scottish self-government. It subsequently led to the abandonment of the Scottish language. The Kirk, the great power in pre-1707 Scotland, saw its role diminished. It was only by turning from their language, religion, and political system-and, perhaps one might say, being able to out-Brit the British-that the Scots were able to achieve success.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World tells an untold story with wit and eloquence. This provocative book will gain the interest of Scots and non-Scots alike and will cause readers to wonder at how this small group living in the shadow of their southern neighbors has had such a positive impact upon the world in which we live.

The tale of William Wallace laying the groundwork for the Scots to claim dominion over their homeland, immortalized on film, is a remarkable one. Arthur Herman's story of how the Scots came to dominate the rest of the world is even more astonishing.