This letter in the Scotsman - reaction to Niall Ferguson's diatribe in the 'paper a couple of days earlier... Needless to say, this reader has branded Ferguson's views as 'Anglo-British' and 'Anglocentric'...
So there you go Jimmy, when one of your own is slagging you off, just blame the English, obviously....
Anti-Scottish historians
Professor Niall Ferguson's tirade against Scotland (your report, 2 January) was neither the first time nor, I suspect, the last time an anglocentric Scottish historian will denigrate the culture of Scots and attempt to falsify our history. In this respect, he stands shoulder to shoulder with other contemporary Anglo-British historians based in Scotland in a lineage that goes back to Sir Walter Scott, and before that to the "North British" figures of the 18th-century Enlightenment.
Wedded as they are to the Union, they can hardly contain their disdain for those Scots through the ages who have refused to buy into cultural assimilation, political dependence and national self-negation. But when the British establishment's pet historians rant loudest against Scotland, it is a sure sign that confident, creative and independently-minded Scots are again in the ascendancy.
KEVIN WILLIAMSON
Spey Terrace
Edinburgh
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