“Not a Question of Trust, but of Proof”: Malcolm Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History, and the History Wars of 1920s Scotland

Abstract

The publication of A Chain of Error in Scottish History by Malcolm Hay in 1927, which concerned anti-Catholic bias in Scottish historical literature sparked controversy in Britain and Ireland. Negative reviews posted in The Times Literary Supplement and Scottish Historical Review were met with anger not only from Roman Catholics in Britain, but also Protestants sympathetic to Hay. Existing literature situated the debate over the book’s publication primarily in terms of Catholic-Protestant sectarianism and historiographical methodology, but not its deeper societal causes. I utilised historical documents from the University of Aberdeen belonging to Malcolm Hay, such as newspaper clippings and correspondence, as well as research in digital archives, to better understand the controversy itself. I also supplemented this information with research into the social history of Europe to understand its historical context. I found that the controversy’s direct historiographical and sectarian causes were in turn rooted in the crisis liberal capitalism, which supported both Protestantism and a pro-Protestant school of history in Britain, faced after the First World War. In addition, I discovered that a single individual, James Houston Baxter, had written both controversial reviews, making the Protestants appear more anti-Hay than previously appeared. Finally, I compared the controversy to that of modern-day history wars, noting commonalities both in their origins and the manner they unfolded.