John L Roberts – författare

Lucid and entertaining, this book follows the history of Celtic Scotland from the ancient kingdoms of the Picts and Scots to the downfall of Clan Donald at the end of the fifteenth century. The roles played by Somerled and his descendants, the Canmore kings, Edward I as the 'Hammer of the Scots', and Robert the Bruce, are recounted, along with the impact of the Wars of Scottish Independence, and their aftermath in the North. It was only in the Western Highlands of Scotland that Celtic society survived in quasi-independence as the Lordship of the Isles, until its final forfeiture in 1493. John L Roberts adds academic accuracy to his gift for storytelling in this hugely enjoyable and scholarly history.

Clan, King and Covenant explores the turbulent history of the Highlands during the seventeenth century. The signing of the National Covenant in 1638 first challenged the powers of Charles I in Scotland, but it was only when Alisdair MacDonald joined Montrose in raising the Royalist clans that the country erupted into civil war. Central to the conflict was the ancient enmity between the MacDonalds and the Campbells, Earls of Argyll, as clan Donald attempted to reclaim their ancestral lands in Argyll. There followed a whirlwind year of spectacular victories for Montrose in the name of the King as the Highland clans emerged upon the national stage, before his campaign subsided into eventual defeat. However it was only after the Restoration of Charles II that a bitter and protracted struggle broke out between Church and Crown, after Bishops were reappointed to the national Church. Political and religious tensions mounted with the acession of James VII of Scotland (James II of England) as a Catholic king ruling over a predominantly Presbyterian people. It reached a climax in the outbreak of the Highland War, when Viscount Dundee won a devastating victory at Killiecrankie on behalf of James VII over the Presbyterian forces of Lowland Scotland, but at the cost of his own life. Subsequently the Crown imposed an uneasy peace upon the Highlands, after the cold-blooded plotting of 'murder under trust' culminated in the Glencoe Massacre. Condoned by William of Orange, few events in the blood-stained history of the Highland clans have quite the dreadful resonance of this act, carried out cynically as a matter of public policy.Also available by the same author: Lost Kingdoms and Feuds, Forays and Rebellions (both Edinburgh University Press)

This guide to the geology of the diverse landforms of the north and west Highlands of Scotland offers the answers to questions as diverse as where fossils can be found on Skye to where the oldest rocks in Europe are located.

Recent scholarship has inquired into the socio-historical, discursive genesis of trauma. Trauma and the Ontology of the Modern Subject, however, seeks what has not been actualized in trauma studies – that is, how the necessity and unassailable intensity of trauma is fastened to its historical emergence. We must ask not only what trauma means for the individual person’s biography, but also what it means to be the historical subject of trauma. In other words, how does being human in this current period of history implicate one’s lived possibilities that are threatened, and perhaps framed, through trauma? Foucauldian sensibilities inform a critical and structural analysis that is hermeneutically grounded. Drawing on the history of ideas and on Lacan’s work in particular, John L. Roberts argues that what we mean by trauma has developed over time, and that it is intimately tied with an ontology of the subject; that is to say, what it is to be, and means to be human. He argues that modern subjectivity – as articulated by Heidegger, Levinas, and Lacan – is structurally traumatic, founded in its finitude as self-withdrawal in time, its temporal self-absence becoming the very conditions for agency, truth and knowledge. The book also argues that this fractured temporal horizon – as an effect of an interrupting Otherness or alterity – is obscured through the discourses and technologies of the psy-disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy). Consideration is given to social, political, and economic consequences of this concealment.Trauma and the Ontology of the Modern Subject will be of enduring interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists as well as scholars of philosophy and cultural studies.

Recent scholarship has inquired into the socio-historical, discursive genesis of trauma. Trauma and the Ontology of the Modern Subject, however, seeks what has not been actualized in trauma studies – that is, how the necessity and unassailable intensity of trauma is fastened to its historical emergence. We must ask not only what trauma means for the individual person’s biography, but also what it means to be the historical subject of trauma. In other words, how does being human in this current period of history implicate one’s lived possibilities that are threatened, and perhaps framed, through trauma? Foucauldian sensibilities inform a critical and structural analysis that is hermeneutically grounded. Drawing on the history of ideas and on Lacan’s work in particular, John L. Roberts argues that what we mean by trauma has developed over time, and that it is intimately tied with an ontology of the subject; that is to say, what it is to be, and means to be human. He argues that modern subjectivity – as articulated by Heidegger, Levinas, and Lacan – is structurally traumatic, founded in its finitude as self-withdrawal in time, its temporal self-absence becoming the very conditions for agency, truth and knowledge. The book also argues that this fractured temporal horizon – as an effect of an interrupting Otherness or alterity – is obscured through the discourses and technologies of the psy-disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy). Consideration is given to social, political, and economic consequences of this concealment.Trauma and the Ontology of the Modern Subject will be of enduring interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists as well as scholars of philosophy and cultural studies.

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from a small states perspective. The authors compare the performance of 46 small island developing states (SIDS) with 10 benchmark states, illuminating achievements and highlighting areas in which countries are falling behind.The data, 2000–2010, shows that despite their many commonalities, a 'big divide' separates these countries across the range of MDG economic, social and environmental indicators. The report also highlights aspects of the MDG system that are not well attuned to the interests of small states, and recommends how these issues can be resolved. The analysis and recommendations presented in this study will be very useful in the context of on-going international discussions on the MDGs in the light of their conclusion in 2015, and in consideration of successor goals.