Book excerpt: Looking at some of the aspects of the social history of Scotland from 1745 to 1960, this book uses such themes as work, love, celebration, religion, sickness, shopping and travel, to illustrate the history of ordinary people doing everyday things. Subjects and incidents cited include William Cobbett visiting a peasant bothy outside Edinburgh in 1832, a first-hand account of the Glasgow tenements between the wars, middle-class affluence in early 19th century Edinburgh and life both above and below stairs in the grand houses of the gentry in the 1950s. There is reportage from the Clearances set beside the letters and diary entries of the first recreational explorers of the Highlands - the sportsmen and tourists.