Output details

Tartan Pimps: Gordon Brown, Margaret Thatcher and the New Scotland

This book examines the extent to which the work of writers, thinkers, and artists can be said to have directly influenced civil, political and ultimately spatial formations in the Scottish polity over the last 50 years. The research used an analysis of a range of texts from thinkers, philosophers, historians, poets, artists, social and political scientists, politicians and journalists, in an attempt to establish a narrative of Scotland’s political existence as it was argued into being. The political and literary analyses are informed by a full gamut of political theory from Machiavelli and Montaigne to Fanon and Gramsci, and on to Hollywood and the Broons, and a cross referencing juxtaposition of the various authors involved. This leads to an argument that these writers re-ignited political identity and native democracy, and opened the paths for everyday change. Three further refereed journals articles were published :One on thinkers in 19th century Scotland and Germany : Rodger, J (2012),’From Slogan to Clan: Scotto-Germanic Romantic relations’¸ Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature, Vol 18, pp189-212. A comparative examination of the literature/political space relationship in USA: Rodger, J, (2013), ‘To Infinity and Beyond…: The American Vernacular and Democratic Space’ Comparative American Studies, Vol.11, Iss. 1, pp. 2-17. And an examination of the influence of phenomenology and cubist art on the Glasgow School of Arts buildings in Rodger, J (2013) ‘Putting Holl and Mackintosh in multi-perspective: the new building at the Glasgow School of Art’. <http://radar.gsa.ac.uk/3227/> arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 17 (1). pp. 2-14. ISSN 1359-1355. Tartan Pimps was reviewed in Scottish Review of Books, Volume 6 Issue 2 May 2010, by,Ian Bell , in The Scotsman, ‘Tartan Pimps/Broonland’ , George Kerevan, 19th March 2010; and in Institute of Welsh Affairs website by director John Osmond (see Click on Wales – ‘Tartan Pimps in Topsy Turvy Times’).