Book excerpt: Conventional accounts of the Scottish Highlands tend to assume that they remained detached from the mainstream of British affairs until well into the eighteenth century. In Governing Gaeldom, Allan Kennedy challenges this perception through detailed analysis of the relationship between the Highlands and the Scottish state during the reigns of Charles II and James VII & II. Drawing upon a wide range of sources, Kennedy traces the political, social, ecclesiastical and economic linkages between centre and periphery, demonstrating that the Highlands were much more tightly integrated than hitherto assumed. At the same time, he reconstructs the development of Highland policy, placing it within its proper context of the absolutist pretensions of the late-Stuart monarchy. The result is a thorough reinterpretation which offers fresh insights into the process of state-formation in early-modern Britain. The volume has been awarded the Frank Watson Book Prize for 2015. For more details see: https://www.uoguelph.ca/scottish/frank_watson This title is shortlisted for the Saltire Society 2014 History Book of the Year Award. For more details see: http://www.saltiresociety.org.uk/awards/literature/literary-awards/scottish-history-book-of-the-year/2014-history-book-shortlist/