In recent decades, the vicissitudes of U.K. politics have projected onto the world a narrow image of Scotland as a hotbed of socialism and nationalism, a realm where victimhood and provincialism reign supreme. Reading the headlines, it is easy to disregard unless one is somewhat familiar with the country’s history and intellectual tradition, and the eminent place Scotland occupies in the scholarly world of science and social science, this country’s contribution to civilization and the culture of liberty.
As I drive with my son and daughter, and my son’s girlfriend, across various parts of the lowlands and the highlands of
