Red Scotland!

This book explores the impact of the Left on the Scottish people between the 1880s and the 1930s, and asks whether Scotland was ever ‘Red’ during these decades. To do this, it examines the major issues concerning radicalism in the country, including the impact of left-wing political radicalism, industrial unrest, war and the Russian Revolution. It assesses whether an original and distinctive brand of socialism was developing in Scotland during these years, and looks at the wider reaction of Scottish society to the events that were unfolding. This book investigates Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth, Edinburgh and Leith, and the coalfields of Fife and the Lothians, and to a lesser extent the Highlands and Islands, as well as looking beyond Scotland to consider the impact of the Scottish diaspora and industrial and political radicalism abroad.It considers too the wider responses of Scottish society to the radical movement and examines: reactions to the ‘new unionism’; pre-war labour unrest; the anti-militarism of the radical left-wing alliance; the intense public scrutiny of conscientious objectors, anti-war propaganda and the radical press; the spectre of the Russian Revolution and the apparent Europe-wide communist demarche; and post-war industrial discontent and political change.