This book, part of a landmark new series on the history of the everyday in Scotland, will become a fixture in the bibliographies of historians, students, and interested readers alike. The series consists of four volumes covering everyday life from the medieval period up to the twentieth century and aims to examine, “the ordinary, routine, daily behaviour, experiences and beliefs of the Scottish people” (ix). Some of the best historians in their field have contributed to this volume, in nine specialist chapters. There is also a very good series introduction, an introduction to the volume, an annotated bibliography, and a plethora of fascinating illustrations, making it an excellent resource for readers. Each chapter has extensive notes, and these, along with the bibliography, represent the most up-to-date synthesis of the existing research available. As the series editors, Elizabeth Foyster and Christopher Whatley, point out in their introduction, the purpose of the book is not to present completely new material, but rather to ask new questions, occasionally bringing in other disciplines to do so, in a way that is both accessible and engaging. In this reviewer’s opinion, these aims are amply achieved.

The introduction to the book by this volume’s editors, Trevor Griffiths and Graeme Morton, gives the reader a very useful overview of the existing literature. One of the key questions that each author must address is whether the nineteenth century deserves its reputation as a time of revolutionary change, at least in the context of the everyday. Each of the subsequent nine chapters deals with a particular theme, starting with the land and landscape, jointly written by Mairi Stewart and Fiona Watson. Using estate papers, maps, and government papers as their key sources, Stewart and Watson examine the changes and continuities of land use in Scotland during the nineteenth century, with an emphasis on woodlands and technological change. Their essential conclusion is that it was indeed a century of change, driven by changing attitudes toward land and the changing needs of society. Although written in outstanding prose and full of insight, this was the least successful chapter in the book; perhaps due to its necessarily broad subject matter, it felt a little disjointed and anecdotal in places.

Chapter 2, by W. Hamish Fraser, addresses “necessities” in the nineteenth century, here defined as food and drink, clothing, cleanliness, and warmth. This chapter is filled with fascinating detail, while retaining an overall sense of the massive change in these aspects of the everyday across the century. All of this detail has been painstakingly gleaned from a huge range of sources; from diaries to excise records, cookbooks to magazines. Overall, Fraser makes clear the day-to-day struggle to balance income with expenditure, a burden that was felt most by women. Chapter 3, by Andrew Blaikie, covers the interesting area of rituals, transitions, and life courses, bringing a historical sociology disciplinary approach to the key rites of passage in nineteenth-century life—birth, marriage, and death. Stewart J. Brown follows this with a chapter on beliefs and religion, necessarily dominated by the Presbyterian churches. His argument is that although there was a decline in traditional Presbyterian communal culture by 1900, this was not the same as a decline in religious belief, which, as he shows, remained strong. He also traces the Catholic revival from midcentury and the experiences of Scotland’s small but significant Jewish, Episcopalian, and Baptist communities. Additionally, he includes an overview of non-Christian beliefs such as second sight, witchcraft, and spirits, which readers may not necessarily associate with the nineteenth century.

Chapter 5 takes on more concrete changes in movement, transport, and tourism. Alastair Durie tracks the massive change in the speed, form, and cost of transport and how this had an impact on the worlds of work, leisure, and tourism, concluding that everyday life was itself transformed by revolutionary changes to transport. Work, leisure, and time are addressed in chapter 6 by Trevor Griffiths, emphasizing the gradual, complex, and varied nature of change to these areas of everyday life, particularly when examining them via gender, class, and region. This is followed by an examination of crime, protest, and policing by W. W. J. Knox and A. McKinlay, an area of historical research that has flourished in recent years. This chapter covers changing views of the “criminal” and argues that there was a criminalization of everyday life in the nineteenth century. Public order and policing are also discussed in this context, particularly the enforcing of “moral” behavior by police as the century progressed.

R. J. Morris contributes an excellent chapter on space and place in everyday Scottish life, which particularly benefits from illustrations and photographs. Morris looks at the changing nature of space, especially in an urban context, and the creation of the first “non space,” the railway station. The final chapter, by Graeme Morton, takes identity in everyday life as its key theme, through two key areas; religion and morality and place, the “Scot-land within Scotland” (259), a fascinating and challenging piece for the end of the book.

This book will make a large impact on Scottish history, and it will be a vital resource, as part of its wider series, for academics, students, and researchers in the years to come. It is handsomely produced, with the illustrations, detailed notes, bibliography, and heavy use of primary sources throughout particularly welcome. There is not much attention paid to rural Scotland, Lowland or Highland, but perhaps this is simply a reflection of the dominant historiographical trends in nineteenth-century history. Overall though, it is a roaring success; theoretically informed, and all of the chapters clearly linked to create an admirably coherent whole without any overlap—the authors and editors are to be congratulated.