| Synopsis: |
My Scotland, Our Britain: A Future Worth Sharingis a highly personal account of Gordon Brown's Scotland, the nation he was born in; and our Britain, the multinational state that the Scots, English, Welsh and Northern Irish have created and share. Laying bare his family's ancestry over 300 years of the Union and explaining how it shaped his background, Brown charts what it was like growing up in Scotland in the 1950s and 1960s and explains the influence of religion, education and Scotland's unique industrial structure on the shaping of his and Scotland's identity. He sets out the dramatic economic, social and cultural changes of the past 50 years and the vastly different prospects his children will face, demonstrating that a sense of Scottish national identity has always remained strong and how Scottish institutions have always fiercely guarded their independence. Written before the referendum, Brown argued in My Scotland, Our Britainthat the choice before Scots should not have been seen as a battle between Scotland and Britain. Instead, in tune with Scotland's history of deep engagement with the wider world - as inventors, explorers, traders, missionaries, business leaders and aid workers - the best future for Scots was not to leave Britain but to continue to lead it. Now, with a new afterword Brown reflects upon the referendum campaign, the rejection of independence by the Scottish people, and he continues to make the case for a constitutional settlement that further unites the country. |