Historian dishes out blast from the past

Published on Friday 30 January 2009 09:00

HE'S been called many things over his 40-year career. A prima donna. The conscience of Scotland. Misguided. Our greatest living historian.

Perhaps the most entertaining comment on Professor Tom Devine, though, comes from TV presenter Neil Oliver, piqued at criticism from Devine and another leading historian, Prof Allan Macinnes.

"Every time I hear those two men's names it makes me think of the two grumpy old men on The Muppet Show. They truly are the Statler and Waldorf of Scottish history," he sniped.

Perhaps Oliver's not far off the mark in one respect. At 63 and approaching retirement, Devine is hardly in the first flush of youth – as the Edinburgh University academic admits as he tells the story of how arriving to give his first lecture as a fresh-faced post-graduate, his students didn't believe he was the tutor. "That wouldn't happen now," he says. "Ha, ha, ha."

But grumpy? Not with that throaty and frequent chuckle.

Of course, in the 1970s children's TV show it was Statler and Waldorf's witty comments which cut through the Muppets' foolish onstage antics . . .

"Ha, ha, ha. Oliver seems to have shot himself in the foot with that attempt at an insult," Devine says. "Especially as the two old men were usually spot on in their lampooning of the Muppets."

More seriously, he insists: "I don't have any problem with Neil Oliver himself." His problem, he says, is having an archaeologist-turned-journalist presenting the BBC series A History of Scotland, broadcast at the end of last year, rather than a historian.

"In England, when they have history programmes they get historians to do them," he says, citing Simon Schama, David Starkey and Glaswegian Niall Ferguson as history heavyweights who've had TV hits. Why, he says, couldn't Scotland have had the same?

He can't comment on the quality of the content of the show – it's not his period. "But I am waiting with anticipation for the next series because it enters my period of expertise," he grins.

That'll be screened next year. If it doesn't measure up to the exacting standards of the Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography, to give Devine his full title, it's unlikely he'll remain silent.

Because if the word grumpy doesn't fit, controversial could have been tailor-made. He hates the "Gaelic fascism" of those who believe Scottish history can only be written by pure-born natives – the teachers who inspired him as a student were "almost to man and woman" English.

He's spoken out at the "pop-up book" approach to history in schools, and he's taken equal swipes at those who hold a romantic "Burns Supper" view of the past and those who indulge in "victim history", seeing Scots as the hapless prey of wicked English oppressors.

Oh, and this week, apparently the organisers of Homecoming, a year-long series of events celebrating Scots' contributions to the world and reaching out to those with Scottish ancestry, felt his wrath. According to reports, Devine flounced out of the advisory board because it was dominated by Government spin and, he feels, the programme is not justified by historical reality.

The truth is somewhat more complex. He did go to the first meeting of the original group. "I decided that after that meeting I really couldn't make a contribution." But that group was disbanded and Devine has had nothing to do with current organising body, EventScotland.

In fact, he says we should be grateful there is a programme at all and that there is much to commend in it, from musical, historical and cultural events to "high quality academic activities", including a debate on the Diaspora at the Scottish Parliament in July, where he's delighted to be giving the keynote speech.

But he does feel the programme has too much of a North American slant.

"I think it's a golden opportunity to tell indigenous Scots and the world that it's not limited to the Atlantic Diaspora – Canada and the USA with an add-on for Australia and New Zealand.

"That word Diaspora is being used so loosely. It doesn't simply mean emmigration. It means scattering and only refers to a few ethnic groups in the world – the Jews, in Asia the Chinese, the Armenians, the Irish and Palestinians and certainly also the Scots."

Scots have been leaving in vast numbers from the 13th century to the present but North America has really only been their destination in the last two of those nine.

Early migrants headed for Sweden, Poland and eastern Europe. In the 17th century it was Ulster. "They penetrated areas outside the Empire, such as Japan and China." And, of course, one of the most popular destinations was England. "Are we campaigning there?" he questions.

"The Scots were also over- represented in the Caribbean, as physicians, soldiers, factors, plantation owners."

Many former slaves took the names of their factors or owners, leaving a Scottish legacy that's obvious just from the Jamaican phone book. "Why don't we hold out a hand to that population?" he asks. It's that darker side of our past he feels is missing.

"It's an opportunity to look carefully and honestly at our past. The Scots' past is full of extraordinary achievements for a small nation but it's not devoid of warts either. I'm not suggesting we should get into contrition mode but we need a degree of balance."

The centuries-long scattering of the Scots is a subject close to his heart, explored in one of his books, Scotland's Empire, which has now sold more than 98,000 copies and in his role as head of the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies, which opened last year.

He is also currently head of the University's School of History, Classics and Archaeology – although he says the surprisingly bare bookshelves in his room point to the temporary nature of this managerial role.

In fact, thanks to the extraordinary rise in history's popularity in recent years, he could chuck the whole university teaching thing in. "The demand for your services is just growing exponentially. I could make a completely alternative career just accepting the invitations from outside the university system. I have to turn most of them down sadly. Ha, ha, ha."

There are several reasons for this fascination for the past, including the rise in nationalism.

"As soon as you start debating identity, you are moving into history; who we are, what kind of nation is this, where do we come from. All of these questions are historical."

The problem for the organisers of Homecoming is that modern Scots' views of themselves and their country are often very different to that of those whose connection to Scotland is several generations back.

"They have evolved their own sense of Scottishness. It usually consists of tartan, Burns Night suppers, St Andrew's Day and a rather bizarre form of Highland Games.

"It's easy to be snotty about it but it's part of what I call the invention of tradition. Myth is more important for human beings than history. It's been invented but it's not any less powerful.

"So it will be fascinating to see the reaction to the Clan Gathering (a Homecoming event when around 50,000 people are expected at Holyrood Park in July] by indigenous Scots – will it thrill or repel them?"

Whatever's its possible flaws, he says Homecoming is worth celebrating.

"Small nations always have the temptation of becoming too introspective – the 'Burns Supper' view. One way to avoid that is cosmopolitanism, international links, looking out. Our huge diaspora tradition provides a golden opportunity to look out rather than look in."

GENEROUS DONATION FUNDED CENTRE

THE Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies opened last year, with more than 800 people packing into a university hall for its launch.

The creation of the centre has been funded by a 1 million donation from Alan Macfarlane, managing director of equity investment management firm Walter Scott and Partners, and his wife Anne, both former students at the university.

It is believed to be the largest single private donation ever made to a UK History School.

Among the work going on there at the moment is a Swiss-German PhD student looking at the concept of Scottishness from the 1980s to the present day.