The Society’s Chief Executive, Dr Robert Pirrie WS will be giving a lecture on Thursday 30 January (6.30 pm) entitled No true Scotsman: Macaulay and the trivialisation of Scottish history.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) remains a major figure in English historiography. Although descended from a storied Highland family, some of his most polemical observations were reserved for Scots. Robert Pirrie, who is writing a book on the history of Scottish national identity, will argue that although Macaulay’s work is seen today as flawed, a product of its time, the long reach of his influence has helped to perpetuate attitudes to Scottish cultural historiography into the present. While an admirer of Macaulay’s colourful, tendentious style, Dr Pirrie unpicks the ways in which Macaulay was seminal in denigrating and trivialising Scotland, one of Europe’s original kingdoms. He will demonstrate where this critique fits within his book as a whole.

This lecture is part of the Curious Histories’ public talks programme.