can I ask what it so inaccurate about Outlander? I ask in good faith it just always struck me as one of the more historically accurate shows
The topic of Scottish identity after 1689 through the Jacobite rebellions and then emigration from the Highlands and Islands to North Carolina was literally my master’s thesis topic lmao So I will try and keep this as brief as I humanly can when I quite literally wrote a book on it.
My primary issue with Outlander’s historical inaccuracies is my main issue with 99% of historic Scottish media,in that it grossly romanticized and subverts modern conceptions of nationality and patriotism on to people who did not think nor operate that way. Outlander is guilty of what nearly anything about the Jacobites does in that it totes them as Scottish nationalists and protectors of Gaelic culture against the forces of invading Anglicism. Media loves to portray them as Catholics,fierce Scottish patriots,and kilt wearing Highlanders fighting for their god given Celtic freedom.
The reality is far more complicated. Scots didn’t really conceive of themselves existing beyond the lens of British,even the Jacobite extremists. And by 1745 even Jacobites weren’t so much for the Stuarts and the ideal of Scottish separatism and individualism,nor were they majority Catholics,nor were they a bastion of Gaelic purity against the evils of the English Empire. The Scots were very much a part of the British Empire and were participants of its expansion,colonialism,and conceptions of identity. Scots did consider themselves to be Scottish,but also British,but also what county they were from,or what part of the highlands or islands. Of course the more remote you got the more distance and separation in how closely they considered themselves a part of Britain. There’s an account from a famous travel journal of a man visiting the Orkney islands like 7 years after William of Orange was on the throne,where the local islanders had no idea the Stuarts weren’t on the throne anymore and that rulership had changed. So of course place and key details of remoteness played a huge part in identity.
But the fact remains that even the Jacobites during this period weren’t like “I’m going to fight for Scottish independence from Britain and I love my motherland for my roots of Gaeldom and I’m going to wear my kilt as a symbol of my culture against the oppression of the English” *bagpipes plays* Many Scots did want separation and didn’t like the 1707 union,and yes after 1745 traditional highland culture was restricted. But we must also remember that even amongst Scottish separatists the Jacobites were considered extremists,and very few actually believed Charles should be king. Many simply wanted the separation of Scottish parliament,and for many others it was the same cries of unlawful taxation and oppression of a foreign king heard in the North American colonies only a couple decades later. The reality is that often that rebellion was born from political feuding,rather than cultural.
The romanticism comes from Walter Scott initially who in the early 1800s became famous for his romantic novels about the Scottish highlands and the Gaelic fight for freedom. Literally almost all of our modern conceptions of the 18th century Highlander comes from Scott and WOOL MILLS in LONDON in 1800 who invented the idea of clan tartans and the kilt as a symbol of Clan allegiance and Scottish nationalism. Identity in the 18th century was a murky and complicated thing,and the conceptions of Scottish and highland and specific clan affiliation and specific family houses were not necessarily in opposition to the conceptions of Britishness,nor was the idea of Anglicism conceived of being inherently bad or a corruption of Gaelic culture. Many hated the English sure,but the majority did not. The idea of protecting and revitalizing traditional Gaelic culture was a later invention,and while certainly many highlanders and islanders were proud of their culture and ways of life,those ways of life existed more from isolation and local evolution of identity and culture,rather than a universal highland and island conception of Scottishness or Gaelicness.
So in all,Outlander projects modern nationalism and romanticism on to the Scottish highlander. And yes they’re romance books,but the continuation of we as modern people projecting our own ideals and values to people in the past is a rampant issue for historians. It’s the same as our romanticism of the American Revolution and the complete false narrative of history that stems from that. The result is nearly an entire country who does not truly understand why our society exists as it does now. If you view the Jacobite rebellions or the American Revolution through a lens of brilliant patriots and nationalists fighting for their culture and freedom than there’s literally no way you can understand your own government or the history of your country accurately. Romanticism blinds the general public to the nuances and reality of history,and that reality grounds our political present and the current issues we all face.
