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Press Releases
Scotland's History: The Top Ten - your country's history needs you...
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Scotland's history is being put to the vote on Friday 24 November.
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The vote to choose the essential elements of Scottish history from 30 topics -
people, events and ideas - will go live on bbc.co.uk/scotlandshistory immediately after the transmission of the third episode of Scotland's History: The
Top Ten.
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The half-hour programme, which goes out at 8.30pm on 91Èȱ¬ Two Scotland tomorrow (Friday 24
November), will reveal the third and final batch of 10 up for consideration.
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The
vote will remain open until midnight, Tuesday 28 November and the result will be
revealed in a special programme on St Andrew's night (Thursday 30 November).
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Presenter Neil Oliver says: "Scotland's history is your history - all of us who
live here in this country - and we want the public to vote.
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"Whether your ancestor was an ancient Pict, your grandmother came from the Indian
sub-continent, or you have just arrived from Eastern Europe - what should you
really know about the history of the country you live in?
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"That is the essence of the challenge - to define what are the key elements that
make Scots who they are.
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"Any such list can never be definitive, but to take a snapshot at this stage in
time as to what people think are the defining need-to-know aspects of Scottish
history is just a fascinating opportunity."
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Over the last two weeks, the series has already unveiled the following 20 topics
and their advocates:
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 The Scottish Empire - historian Michael Fry
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The Slave Trade - author James Robertson
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Unification (of Scotland) - Alex Woolf, St Andrews University
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Engineers and Inventors: James Watt - Rowan Brown, Curator of Technology
at National Museums of Scotland
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The Enlightenment - broadcaster James Naughtie
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Irish Immigration - Martin Mitchell, Strathclyde University
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Entertainers - actor Sanjeev Kohli
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Margaret Thatcher - David Stewart
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Renaissance Court: James IV and V - Katie Stevenson, St Andrews
University
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Working Women - journalist Dr Norman Watson
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Declaration of Arbroath - Ted Cowan, Glasgow University Ìý
The Reformation - Jenny Wormald, Edinburgh University
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Burns - Owen Dudley Edwards, Edinburgh University
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Tartanry - folklorist Margaret Bennett
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Scientists: James Clerk Maxwell - Bruce Borthwick
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The Scottish City - historian Hamish Fraser
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Radicalism - historian Michael Donnelly
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Treaty of Union - Richard Finlay, Strathclyde University
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Clearances - Donald William Stewart, Edinburgh University
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Football - Bill Murray, La Trobe University, Australia.
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The results of the public vote will be revealed in a special programme on St
Andrew's night (30 November), alongside the deliberations of a panel of history
professionals chaired by Professor Tom Devine.
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Joining him to debate and wrestle with the ongoing significance of the 30 different
topics to get them down to the essential ten of Scottish history are: Allan
MacInnes, of Aberdeen University; Alison Cathcart, of Strathclyde University; David
Caldwell, National Museums of Scotland; Doreen Grove of Historic Scotland; Duncan
Toms, Principal Teacher of History at Bearsden Academy; and Katie Barclay, a Ph.D
student at Glasgow University.
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Notes to Editors
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The 30 topics were whittled down from more than 1,000 nominations received from
voxpops around the country and to bbc.co.uk/scotlandshistory.
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HM
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