Description: The word "clan", which is Gaelic for "children", has been adopted everywhere as a synonym for "tribe". Ian Grimble's book remains the classic account of the origin of the clan amongst the Celtic people of Europe, its new lease on life in Scotland, and its increasing anachronism in a rapidly changing country where a life based around land and family gave way to a capitalist economy in which chiefs became landlords. He details the ineptitude and hostility of a remote government faced with a society increasingly resistant to change, a society it made little effort to understand. The final clash was both brutal and destructive, yet, out of it the clan system was revived as a model of romantic celebration and pride. Grimble tells the story of this extraordinary society, both as a whole and through the history of its largest groupings -- Gordons, Macgregors, Mackenzies, Stewarts, Macdonalds, and Campbells. Originally published in 1980, Clans and Chiefs remains the standard book on the subject.

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