The Mark of the Scots: Their Astonishing Contributions to History, Science, Democracy, Literature, and the Arts, by Duncan A. Bruce
While relatively small in number, the Scots and their descendents have certainly made their mark on the world. Here is the first-ever compendium of all things--and all people--of Scottish ancestry. His definition of the Scottish "race," however, is somewhat controversial.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It, by Arthur Herman
Focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries, Herman has written an exploration of Scotland's impact on the modern world's intellectual and industrial development. The 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment paved the way for Scottish and, Herman argues, global modernity. However, the accuracy of his portrayal of Highland culture has been called into question by other academics.

Tam Blake and Company: The Story of the Scots in America, by Jim Hewitson.
In 1540 Tam Blake, mercenary and adventurer, became the first recorded Scot in the New World. Since then, Scots have played an important part in all areas of American history. A remarkable collection of stories and illustrations.

A Dance Called America: The Scottish Highlands, the United States and Canada, by James Hunter
This analysis on the Scottish immigration to North America strikes a balance between Scottish events that determined why people emigrated, and the different experiences of these Gaelic pioneers. The author concentrates on the actual experiences of notable settlers and explorers.

We're Indians Sure Enough:
The Legacy of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States, by Michael Newton
This book is the first extensive collection of Gaelic poetry composed in the United States and the first critical examination of relations between the Highlanders and other ethnic groups. It provides first-hand accounts written by Scottish Gaels as they fled oppression, became engaged in the American War of Independence, and settled in the country which we now call the United States.

Songs of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States, by Michael Newton
This is the first and only collection of songs composed by Scottish Highland immigrants in the United States in Gaelic, their native tongue. Men who led a vigorous life as farmers, hunters, and soldiers bequeathed these songs to us to record their experiences all across America, and we have set out to present them with that same masculine energy.

How Scotland Changed the World, by Robert Shenton Wright
An illustrated book on Scotland's world impact: their Norse ancestors began settling America soon after the Ice Age, shown by the genetic and linguistic identicallness among their native American relatives and many newly classified artifacts previously thought to be "Indian" pictographs. Then newly independent Scotland's royal fleet claimed America in 1398, 96 years before Columbus, and their new concept of patriotic nationalism directly caused the end of feudalism, the Reformation and today's freedoms and demoracy.

America's Founding Secret: What the Scottish Enlightenment Taught Our Founding Fathers, by Robert W. Galvin
In the Scottish Enlightenment, America's founders found the philosophical underpinnings for a conceived government and defined with the intent to promote economic programs, in commerce, based on private capital means. This book will forever change the way Americans look at their nation's beginnings and will remind us again of the fundamental connection between private enterprise and freedom that remains; at the heart of the American experiment.

Scots in the North American West, 1790-1917, by Ferenc Morton Szasz
This book illuminates the many Scottish explorers, adventurers, artists, photographers, and writers who helped to forge the American West.

The Scottish 100: Portraits of History's Most Influential Scots, by Duncan A. Bruce
This compendium of one hundred biographies celebrates seven centuries of Scots whose lives changed their world and ours. Rupert Murdoch, Rachel Carson, Immanuel Kant, Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Arden - however disparate their sympathies, however diverse their times or endeavors, from media conglomerates to conservation to philosophy, literature, and business, they do have one thing in common. They all share a Scots ancestry.

See Also: Books for Children and Young Adults on Scotland