Hugh MacDiarmid

Essential reading for all those with an interest in contemporary Scotland, this is the first study of Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) by a political historian and provides a unique contribution to the understanding of MacDiarmid's politics. Bob Purdie's groundbreaking study outlines why MacDiarmid, the most important literary figure of twentieth-century Scotland, believed that the Scottish culture of his day was making the nation satisfied with its subordinate status within the UK, and why he strove for a self-reliant and independent European nation. Purdie explains why MacDiarmid was a man in constant revolt, against what he viewed as a stiflingly narrow Scottish culture, against all that was provincial and philistine in Scottish society and against Scotland's dependency on England.