The Big News in Scotland 307 Years Ago is still Big News

On 16 January 1707, an act authorizing the Union of the Kingdoms on Scotland and England was ratified. It took effect on 1 May of that same year. The newspapers and coffee shops were full of Union news then and it is no different today. This eighteenth-century event has special relevance this year as Scotland prepares for a referendum on the Union this coming September.

My friend, Dr. Karin Bowie of the University of Glasgow, on constitutions in the Scotsman here.

The Centre for Gaelic and Scottish Studies at the University of Glasgow has organized the multidisciplinary lecture series How British is Scotland? Romancing the Union. More information here and here.

Dr. Catriona Macdonald of the University of Glasgow, was the first speaker of the How British in Scotland? lecture series, and a summary of her talk was published in the Scotsman here.

You can learn more about the Act of Union here (from the UK Parliament). Also there are two seminar series available through iTunes University: Vox Populi: The Voice of the Scottish People from the University of Glasgow, 2012-2013; and Scotland and the Union from the University of Edinburgh, 2009.