The breadth and depth of its content makes Michael Anderson's Scotland's populations a rich meal of a book. Having sat down to read it from start to finish, I felt that I had been presented not so much with a substantial dinner, but with a banquet of themed courses each comprising several complementary dishes or chapters made up of a variety of intriguing morsels.
Anderson is an eminent authority on the demography of Britain, and Scotland in particular, and this expertise is apparent as he leads the reader through the intricacies, foibles and omissions of the Scottish sources that are used to chart population changes at the national, regional and local levels over 170 years or so. The book is set out in six parts: Questions and Contexts; The Multiple Scotlands; Migration and the Components and Structures of Population Change; Fertility and Nuptiality; Mortality; and Conclusion. These, it should be said, are not easy to consume in one go. This is a book packed with statistics, graphs, maps and tables, and the reader needs to take time to read and reflect on the facts, interpretations, arguments and discussions presented. The six parts are divided into 20 relatively short chapters; a design that greatly helps this process of digestion. Those who wish can concentrate on just one of the ‘dishes’ offered, such as ‘fertility changes since the 1930s’, ‘spatial variations in mortality’ or ‘patterns of migration’, but preferably on a second visit to the table, once they have become familiar with the broad arguments within that particular section of the book.
As the title suggests, Anderson views Scotland as having not one population but several, delineated by place of residence, occupation, ethnicity, religion, or level of prosperity. The populations and their demographies are considered at a variety of geographic levels from the ‘civil parish’, through the burghs, to the principal cities, the counties and regions. Corinne Roughley's maps depict population density, population change per decade, and marital fertility at parish level for different time periods. These neatly indicate change across both space and time; highlighting the range of demographic experience that existed within the counties and regions. Readers unfamiliar with Scotland's geography may, however, find themselves wishing that a key to the spatial units shown on the maps had been made available to help them locate some of the less well-known place names mentioned in the text.
Scotland's national population figures are compared to those of England and Wales, other northern and western European countries and beyond. A refreshing aspect of the book is Anderson's insistence that, as often as possible, ‘like should be compared with like’. Why compare Scottish mortality with that of Mediterranean countries – which had to contend with much more adverse climatic conditions – when death rates in Scotland were ‘worse than most other parts of western Europe even in the later nineteenth century, and [have] been so ever since’ (p. 333) despite a similar climate?
A great strength of the book is its long view, encompassing the changes and evolutions in Scottish society, culture and economy and their interactions with the country's demography or demographies. It is ordered so that the reader is first provided with the information about migration, and its effects on population structure, that is needed to fully understand the implications for marriage, fertility and mortality laid out in later chapters. The discussions focus in turn on different time periods within the 17 decades covered by the book, making it easier to follow the developments and relationships outlined, but Anderson is careful to bring the threads together to draw out the overarching narrative in each part. He then combines the various components of his story to show how they have brought about the populations of Scotland as they are seen today; tracing the origins of twenty-first-century problems not just to the last few decades of the twentieth century, but back into the nineteenth and, in a few instances, beyond. This long view of changing population structures remoulded by migration, different survival chances and fertility trends, reminds us how shifts in the balance between the sexes or among age groups can take several decades to work through a population and may have consequences that linger on for generations. Such a view also allows observations made using a more constrained time perspective to be set in their wider context; encouraging new trains of thought and new avenues of research.
The comparisons undertaken have to allow for the changing geographic or administrative units for which statistical data were collected or published, the variations in definitions used, or the demise of old sources and the genesis of new ones. Anderson's discussion of his sources, his description of their pitfalls and of the assumptions that had to be made to impute continuations in the data series he presents, are to be recommended as a model to students from across the social sciences and humanities who are preparing research projects and reports. Students may also take comfort that even in monographs with the highest of production values a few errors can creep in: labels on graphs can become reversed and catch readers unawares.
As with all good banquets, this book offers something for everyone, whatever their tastes. Both historical and contemporary demographers will find rich seams of information and questions to mull over. Geographers, medical and social historians, economists and social scientists will all find food for thought. Undergraduates from across these disciplines, along with policymakers and politicians throughout Europe and further afield, should have this book high on their reading list, as it demonstrates very clearly the interconnectedness of the elements of demography, economy, society, housing, welfare, religion and culture.
This is a book that will bear many re-readings. It is sure to become a standard text, not only for those interested in Scotland, but also for anyone concerned with the many economic, social and population issues it touches upon, no matter the period they are interested in. A veritable feast indeed.
