One of the most exciting trends in Scottish historical writing in the last decade has seen scholars shift their focus to the western seaboard of the medieval kingdom, typically viewed as suffering a dearth of conventional written record but acknowledged also as rich in surviving archaeological and material sources. The thirteen essays in this book edited by Richard Oram draw on the fruits of this recent work, with the twin aims of offering novel conclusions about the nature of MacDonald lordship between 1300 and 1600 and marking paths for future research. In most respects the volume succeeds admirably in achieving these objectives.

Collectively, the essays present compelling evidence for rejecting the long held (and drearily enduring) portrayal of the lordship as a contested cultural space from which backward-looking, independent Gaels battled an authoritarian crown determined to bring to heel a traditionally independent and rebellious region. Instead, the book makes a series of (mostly) well-supported arguments for treating lordly power in the Isles as anything but static or hegemonic in the economic, political, and cultural spheres. Just as the geographical extent and the political influence of the Anglo-Scottish border lands and the principality of Wales shifted as a consequence of relations with the late medieval and early modern English polity, so too did the lands that formed part of the lordship contract or increase from one generation to the next in response to specific circumstances (for example after 1436, when Alexander, third Lord of the Isles also became earl of Ross). Likewise, the family and tenurial affinities that formed the basis of successive lords’ power and authority changed over time.

Another theme that emerges clearly from the collection is the sophistication of the MacDonald lords in navigating the vagaries of Scottish politics in the late medieval and early modern periods. Few noblemen were as skilled at taking advantage of opportunities to benefit from the weakness of individual monarchs or the instability characteristic of royal minorities. MacDonald ambitions, moreover, brought members of the kindred into close contact not only with their own kings but, as Alison Cathcart's chapter demonstrates, with the wider Irish Sea world and England and, as Lachlan Nicholson's contribution ably discusses, with the kingdom of France.

Several of the essays revisit the historiography of the lordship of the Isles on the basis of newly exploited source materials; others tackle in novel fashion old and problematic works, notably clan genealogies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Richard Oram's introductory chapter offers a thorough review of the ways in which antiquarians, historians, and other scholars of the last one hundred and fifty years have sought to explain the often stormy relations between the MacDonalds and their kings. Sarah Thomas's study of papal archival materials demonstrates how carefully the lords of the Isles exploited benefices in their gift (or otherwise within their control) to give simultaneous expression to their piety and their powers of noble patronage. Alasdair Ross's fine essay on the Mackintosh family unravels the mysteries of well-known but hitherto under examined genealogies. Michael Penman brings his expertise to bear in a masterful study of relations between the fourteenth-century MacDonalds and the Bruce crown. The most memorable essays in the book—and those most likely to attract a wide readership—are those that examine the lordship of the Isles from the broader perspectives of environmental and material history. A second essay by Oram examines economic, demographic, and cultural developments in the long period between 1000 and 1750 in the context of a changing (and, from 1300, dramatically worsening) climate in the North Atlantic region. Colin Martin, T. E. McNeill, David Caldwell, and Geoffrey Stell all argue convincingly that the MacDonalds’ rise to power after 1350 is most satisfactorily explained by the lords’ intimate acquaintance with, and ability to manage, the physical features and sea-based resources of the western highland and island zones.

Brill's Northern World Series enjoys an enviable reputation among scholars for its record of bringing into print research that is at once new, interdisciplinary, and thought-provoking. The quality of the volumes in the series almost always makes up for the steep price that the press charges for its publications. The Lordship of the Isles, unfortunately, represents something of an exception to this record of excellence. It reads as if the essays were hurriedly assembled and, indeed, invites speculation about the editor's decision to rush the book into print. While in his introduction Oram presents a very useful review of MacDonald historiography, he makes no attempt whatsoever to identify major themes that inform the twelve essays that follow or to demonstrate to the reader how a first-class collection of essays typically delivers more than the sum of its respective parts. With a handful of notable exceptions, few footnotes link the arguments and conclusions of one contribution to those presented in others. In one case (that of Sonya Cameron), the author admits quite openly that she penned her essay more than twenty years ago and has made little effort to update or revise it. Alastair Campbell of Airds's study of West Highland heraldry hints at the promise of this kind of evidence, but his essay offers little more than a basic description of images common to the seals of the MacDonald chiefs and their followers. The inclusion in the volume of a lavish number of illustrations, an index, and a bibliography helps to offset these faults, but only just. A bit less hurry and a more concerted effort to execute the tasks associated with rigorous academic editing would have been in order.