A history of 'hidden' nationalism in Scottish party politics

Highlights the hidden 'nationalism' of the Scottish Unionist/Conservative Party and extends this analysis to Scottish Labour and Liberal parties
Examines the 'unionism' of the Scottish National Party (SNP) for the first time
Draws on high-circulation media resources such as the Scottish Daily Express - breaking the scholarly reliance on the less-read Herald and Scotsman
Makes use of hitherto-neglected archive material, including the Scottish Political Archive in Stirling and the Parliamentary Archives at Westminster

David Torrance reassesses the relationship between 'nationalism' and 'unionism' in Scottish politics, challenging a binary reading of the two ideologies with the concept of 'nationalist unionism'. Scottish nationalism did not begin with the SNP in 1934, nor was it confined to political parties that desired independent statehood. Rather, it was more dispersed, with the Liberal, Conservative and Labour parties all attempting to harness Scottish national identity and nationalism between 1884 and 2014, often with the paradoxical goal of strengthening rather than ending the Union. The book combines nationalist theory with empirical historical and archival research to argue that these conceptions of Scottish nationhood had much more in common with each other than is commonly accepted.