This is the classic account of the events that shaped the modern highlands, written by a man who went on to become a leading figure in the public life of the region. James Hunter maintains that 'Culloden', which resulted in the prohibition of highland dress and the chiefs' judicial powers over their clans, turned out to be no more than a preliminary to a massive and highly successful assault on the social and political institutions of clanship. Although dysentery, cholera & disease were widespread, some deaths around 1846 were attributed to starvation. The new edition continues to fuel renewed debate about those tragic and contentious happenings and attracts praise and provokes outrage, in about equal measure. It must be said that after reading this book, those highlanders who emigrated - and their families born in the new lands - as a result of the clearances from 1800 onwards, almost without exception enjoyed a better life than those who remained in the highlands to eke out an existence