Essential reading for all those with an interest in contemporary Scotland, this is the first study of Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978), and it provides a unique contribution to the understanding of MacDiarmid"s politics. With the Scottish Independence referendum due in 2014, this timely book outlines why MacDiarmid - the most important literary figure of 20th-century Scotland - believed that the Scottish culture of his day was making the nation satisfied with its subordinate status within the UK, and why he strove for a self-reliant and independent European nation. The book explains why MacDiarmid was a man in constant revolt - against what he viewed as a stiflingly narrow Scottish culture, against all that was provincial and philistine in Scottish society, and against Scotland"s dependency on England.