SCOTLANDS EMPIRE SHAPING AMER

Book excerpt: Devine, who is director of research at the AHRB Center for Irish and Scottish studies at the University of Aberdeen, demonstrates that Scots were involved in the British Empire's (or before 1707, the English Empire's) expansion into Quebec and British North America, the Caribbean, India, and Australia. He also chronicles the ideas, hardships, and accomplishments of the Scots who left their homeland; describes Scottish contributions in the Napoleonic Wars; discusses Scotland's industrial transformation; and addresses the influence of Scottish thinkers David Hume and Adam Smith on the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. His final chapter looks at Scottish identity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).