Edward J. Cowan

Edward J. Cowan FRSE is a Scottish historian.^[1] He is Director of the University of Glasgow's Dumfries Campus and Professor of Scottish History and Literature. His main research interests are with the history of Viking Scotland, the Scottish Wars of Independence, Early Modern Scottish Political Thought, the Covenanters, Scottish Emigration history and the Scots in the Arctic and Pacific North West.

Publications

Books

• Folk in Print: Scotland’s Chapbook Heritage, 1750-1850, with Mike Paterson (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2007) 438pp.
• Ed. The Wallace Book (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2007) 240pp.
• ‘For Freedom Alone’: The Declaration of Arbroath 1320 (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2003) 162pp.
• Scottish History: The Power of the Past, ed. with Richard Finlay (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002) 279pp.
• Scottish Fairy Belief: A History, with Lizanne Henderson (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2001; Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2007) 242pp.
• Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era, ed. with R. A. McDonald (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2000; reprinted 2003) 282pp.
• Ed. The Ballad in Scottish History (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2000) 184pp.
• Scotland Since 1688: Struggle for a Nation, with Richard Finlay (London: CIMA, 2000) 192pp.
• The Polar Twins: Scottish History and Scottish Literature, ed. with Douglas Gifford (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1999) 310pp.
• Ed. The People’s Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1980; reprinted 1995) 223pp.
• Montrose For Covenant and King (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977; reprinted Edinburgh: Canongate, 1995) 326pp. Winner of a Scottish Arts Council Award.

Articles

• ‘Witch Persecution and Folk Belief in Lowland Scotland: The Devil’s Decade’ in Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland eds. Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin and Joyce Miller (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008) 71-94.
• ‘The Unions of 1707’ A Review Article History Scotland vol. 8 no. 2 (2008) 51-55.
• ‘William Wallace: ‘The Choice of the Estates’’ in The Wallace Book ed. E. J. Cowan (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2007) 9-25.
• ‘Scotching the Beggars: John the Commonweal and Scottish History’ in The Scottish Nation: Identity and History: Essays in Honour of William Ferguson (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2007) 1-17.
• ‘Land and Freedom: Scotland, 1314-1707’ in The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature vol. 1 From Columba to the Union (until 1707) Ed. Ian Brown (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007) 135-43.
• ‘Highland and Lowland, Gael and Non-Gael: West Dunbartonshire from the Thirteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries’ in Changing Identities Ancient Roots: The History of West Dunbartonshire from Earliest Times ed. Ian Brown (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006) 42-66.
• ‘The Scots’ Imaging of Canada’ in A Kingdom of the Mind: How the Scots Helped Make Canada eds. Peter E. Rider and Heather McNabb (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s, 2006) 3-21.
• ‘Tartan Day in America’ in Transatlantic Scots ed. Celeste Ray (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005) 318-38.
• ‘Andrew Fletcher and the Radical Political Tradition’ in The Saltoun Papers: Reflections on Andrew Fletcher ed. P. H. Scott (Edinburgh: The Saltire Society, 2003) 151-66.
• ‘Declaring Arbroath’ in The Declaration of Arbroath: History, Significance, Setting ed. Geoffrey Barrow (Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries, 2003) 13-31.
• ‘John Splendid and Scottish History’ in Exploring New Roads: Essays on Neil Munro eds. R. W. Renton and B. D. Osbourne (House of Lochar, Isle of Colonsay 2003) 79-94.
• ‘Miller’s Tale: Narrating History and Tradition’ in Celebrating the Life and Times of Hugh Miller: Scotland in the early 19th century ed. Lester Borley (Cromarty: Cromarty Arts Trust, 2003) 76-88.
• ‘James VI King of Scots, and the Destruction of the Gàidhealtachd’ in Écosse des Highlands: Mythes et réalité ed. Bernard Sellin (Brest: Centre de Recherche Bretonne et Celtique, 2003) 149-66.
• ‘Scotland’s Nordic Legacy: The Harvest of Battles and Beddings’ in Heritage and Identity: Shaping the Nations of the North ed. J. M. Fladmark (Aberdeen: Donhead, 2002) 73-84.
• ‘The Last of the Witches? The Survival of Scottish Witch Belief’, with Lizanne Henderson, in The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context ed. Julian Goodare (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002) 198-217.
• ‘Introduction’ and ‘The Covenanting Tradition in Scottish History’ in Scottish History: The Power of the Past (2002) 1-10, 121-46.
• ‘Mistress and Mother as Political Abstraction: The Apostrophic Poetry of James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, and William Lithgow’ in The European Sun: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Language and Literature eds. G. Caie et al. (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2001) 534-44.
• ‘The Making of Union’ in In Search of Scotland ed. Gordon Menzies (Edinburgh: Polygon, 2001) 136-59.
• ‘The Invention of Celtic Scotland’ in Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era (2000) 1-23.
• ‘The Discovery of the Gàidhealtachd in Sixteenth Century Scotland’ in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness lx (2000) 259-84.
• ‘Introduction: The Hunting of the Ballad’ in The Ballad in Scottish History (2000) 1-18.
• ‘Sex and Violence in the Scottish Ballads’ in The Ballad in Scottish History (2000) 95-115.
• ‘The Myth of Scotch-Canada’ in Myth, Migration and the Making of Memory: Scotia and Nova Scotia c.1700-1990 eds. M. Harper and M. Vance (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood, 1999) 49-72.
• ‘Introduction: Adopting and Adapting the Polar Twins’, with Douglas Gifford, in The Polar Twins (1999) 1-18.
• ‘Identity, freedom and the Declaration of Arbroath’ in D. Broun, R. J. Finlay, M. Lynch eds. Image and Identity: The Making and Re-making of Scotland Through the Ages (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1998) 38-68.
• ‘“Intent upon my own race and place I wrote”: Robert Louis Stevenson and Scottish History’ in The Polar Twins (1999) 187-214.
• 'Prophecy and Prophylaxis. A Paradigm for the Scotch-Irish?' in H. T. Blethen and C. W. Wood eds. Ulster and North America Transatlantic Perspectives on the Scotch-Irish (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997) 15-23.
• ‘The Looting of Lochaber’ in Rae Fleming ed. The Lochaber Emigrants to Glengarry (Toronto: Natural Heritage, 1994) 17-25.
• 'The Historical MacBeth' in W. D. H. Sellar, ed. Moray Province and People (Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies, 1993) 117-142.
• 'Destruction of a Celtic People. The Viking Impact Upon Pictland' Acta xvi, Celtic Connections (New York: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies State University of New York at Binghamton, 1993) 99-112.
• ‘The War Rhymes of Robert Service, Folk Poet’, Studies in Scottish Literature, xxviii (1993) 12-27.
• 'The Political Ideas of a Covenanting Leader: Archibald Campbell Marquis of Argyll 1607-1661' in Roger Mason, ed. Scots and Britons: Scottish Political Thought and the Union of 1707 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) 241-61.
• ‘From the Southern Uplands to Southern Ontario. Scottish Border Migration in the Nineteenth Century’ in T.M. Devine ed. Scottish Emigration and Scottish Society (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1992) 61-83.
• 'Back-home and the Back-country. David Fischer's Borderlands Revisited' The Appalachian Journal (Winter 1992) 166-73.
• 'The Vikings in Galloway. A Review of the Evidence' in Richard Oram and Geoffrey Stell eds. Galloway: Land and Lordship (Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies, 1991) 63-75.
• 'The Making of the National Covenant' in John Morrill, ed. The Scottish National Covenant in its British Context (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990) 68-89.
• 'Norwegian Sunset-Scottish Dawn: Hakon IV and Alexander III’ in Norman H. Reid ed. Scotland in the Reign of Alexander III 1249-1286 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1990) 103-131.
• 'The People of the Sunset. Recent Publications on Neolithic Britain', Scottish Tradition, vol. xv (1989) 1-23.
• ‘The Solemn League and Covenant’ in Roger Mason ed. Scotland and England 1286-1815 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1987) 182-202.
• 'Fishers in Drumlie Waters. Clanship and Campbell Expansion in the Time of Gilleasbuig Grumach'. Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness liv (1987) 269-312.
• 'Between the Unions — Scottish History and Historiography 1603-1707' History Teaching Review vol. 18/2 (1986) 19-23.
• 'Ethnic Sports in Canada. The Scottish Contribution'. Polyphony 7, No. 1, (1985) 17-20.
• 'Myth and Identity in Early Medieval Scotland' Scottish Historical Review lxiii, No. 176 (Oct. 1984) 111-35.
• ‘Caithness in the Sagas’ in J. Baldwin ed. Caithness: A Cultural Crossroads (Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies, 1982) 25-44.
• ‘Sutherland: The Middle Centuries’ in D. Omand ed. The Sutherland Book (Golspie: Northern Times Ltd., 1982) 185-200.
• ‘Internal Migration in Nineteenth Century Scotland’, Families: Journal of the Ontario Genealogical Society, Searching Scottish Ancestry, 21 no. 4 (1982) 223-34.
• ‘The Angus Campbells and the Origins of the Campbell-Ogilvie Feud’ Scottish Studies 25 (1981) 25-38.
• ‘Calvinism and the Survival of Folk of “Deil Stick Da Minister” ’ in The Peoples’ Past (1980) 32-57.
• ‘The “Despotism of Law” in an Agricultural Community’, The Juridical Review, (1980) 47-60.
• ‘The Scottish Chronicle in the Poppleton Manuscript’, Innes Review, xxxii No. 1 (1979)
• ‘The sage and the sagas: the brothers Carlyle and Early Kings’, The Bibliothek, vol 9 No. 5 (1979) 161-83.
• ‘Clanship, kinship and the Campbell acquisition of Islay’, Scottish Historical Review, lviii (1979) 132-57.
• ‘The Union of the Crowns and the Crisis of the Constitution in 17th Century Scotland’ in S.Dyrvik, K. Mykland, J. Oldervoll eds. The Satellite State in the 17th and 18th Centuries (Bergen: Universitetsforlaget, 1979) 121-40.
• ‘Agricultural Improvement and the Formation of early Agricultural Societies in Dumfries and Galloway’, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 3rd series liii (1978) 157-67.
• ‘Icelandic Studies in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Scotland’ Studia Islandica 31 Reykjavik (1972) 107-51.
• ‘On the Character of the Old Northern Poetry’, with Hermann Palsson, Studia Islandica 31 (Reykjavik, 1972) 11-41.
• ‘Montrose and Argyll’ in Gordon Menzies ed. The Scottish Nation (London: BBC, 1972) 118-32.

Pamphlets

• Scottish History and Scottish Folk. Inaugural Lecture, Chair of Scottish History and Literature, March 1995, (University of Glasgow 1998) 31 pp.
• The Historical Highlands: A Guide to Reading, (University of Edinburgh 1977) 41 pp.

References