Here are the triumphs of self-confident Scotland—the completion of the Forth Bridge and the stream of vessels that slid down the slipways of the Clyde to bind together a far-flung empire—but also its injustices, the story of the urban and rural poor, and the evictions that drove people from the land to seek work in the cities or renewed hope in emigration to the New World.

Scotland has always been the country of the "lad o' pairts," the youth from the unpromising, impoverished, often rural background who, with the help of parental self-sacrifice and ambition, personal determination and strength of character, progresses—often as an emigrant to North America—to great things.

Gordon Highlanders drinking whisky from enamel buckets in the New Year celebrations of 1890; the caves of Staffa and their associations with the mythical Celtic hero, Finigal; the grandeur of Edinburgh Castle; a portrait of John Logie Baird, Scottish scientist-hero and inventor of the television; the golfers of Scotscraig a mere decade after the beginning of photography; settlers overseas in Colorado; salmon-netting on the River Oykel—this enthralling visual history brings the country to life not only for everyone of Scottish origin, but equally for everyone who has enjoyed the rich character and landscape of this beguiling nation.