The Highland Clearances - Eric Richards

A clear-eyed look at the history of Clearances in the Scottish Highlands from the late 1700s to late 1800s.   Richards has a different approach from other accounts that I have read, a historian's approach, relying on contemporary accounts, reports, newspaper articles and also the accounts and papers of a few of the larger estates at the time (a relatively recently available source).

Richards creates a much more complex picture by looking, not only at the human drama and suffering, but also at the economics driving the whole process.  When you consider the evidence he brings in about the economic condition of the large estates at the time, there seems to be a certain inevitability about the whole thing.  Most estates were both overpopulated given the farming resources, and producing very low returns.  Many traditional landholders in fact went bankrupt at that time and their estates were sold off.  

The book also places the Clearances in a larger historical context where you see a number of interesting points to consider.  At the time, the Highland social and economic structure was a mix of tribal and almost feudal landlord/tenant relations.  This social structure was in conflict with the newly evolving capitalist social and economic structure which was beginning to produce much more wealth (for property holders and investors at that time) than the old arrangement possibly could.  The Highlands were stuck in that premodern period where wealth was measured in land, not capital.  Like every other society that comes in conflict with the capitalist structure, it proves impossible to stop or resist.   The Clearances are in part a story of the emergence of the modern world, and come early in the process given that England was the country where modern capitalism was born.  

Richards points out that this is a process that continues today in countries where there are still peasants.  Like all social change, it is very disruptive as it works itself out.

There is a good bibliography in the back that has some material worth pursuing.