To See Ourselves

Since 1945, the world has changed at breakneck speed, and life in post-war Scotland is now entirely different from what it was like when Alistair Moffat grew up in the quiet Border town of Kelso in the 1950s. At that time, the rhythms and practicalities of daily life, which had remained constant for many generations, were about to change in the most unimaginable ways.

To See Ourselves is a book about these changes—many of which have been dizzying and disorientating—and how they have affected each and every one of us in all parts of the country. The main themes, such as housing, healthcare, sport, the media, the arts and entertainment, urban and country life, our relationship with the environment, politics, religion, and education, are all viewed through the lens of personal experience.

Alistair's own recollections of big events and small, together with other eyewitness accounts, bring these decades alive in a way that no ordinary history can, with a directness and poignancy that underlines how much has been gained—and how much lost.