Michael Lynch is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. His research interests are in modern European and Chinese history and his recent publications include: Mao (2004), Modern China (2006), Autocracy to Communism: Russia 1894-1941 (2008), and Nazi Germany (2012).

It's a book that seems more like a multi-volume history, so sweeping is it; yet lucid and captivating even in detailed areas... Fundamental to Lynch's approach is a sense of connection between now and then, however far back; he continuously shows how Scottish identity refashions its heroes and myths, yet clings to survival