’Possibly the most interesting book I have ever read on what it means to be Scottish’- TopicalBooks (Spring ,1992) 'I am pleased to see a Scottish critic of my own generation who writes so well and has such vision...purposeful, ambitious, panoptic’ - Robert Crawford, Scottish Literary Journal. .‘Attractive…well written and stimulating book’- Ian Bradley, History Today, September, 50-1. ‘One of the most important books on modern Scotland to appear in recent years’- Stewart Brown, Albion. . ‘An interesting and in many ways a courageous book’- Brean Hammond, British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 15:2,235.'An insightful view...successfully bridges the gap between the discipline of history and literary/cultural studies, a feat requiring unusual academic skills’ - David Duncan. ‘A valuable lesson on the ways in which all national identities are in some sense invented’- Leith Davis, Eighteenth Century Scotland, 25 (1993). ‘Interesting,intelligent and knowledgeable’ - Seventeenth-Century News'The most provocative work of this year...as intriguing as it is important’ - Jill Rubinstein, Year’s Work inn Scottish Literature (1991/2).