August 11 in Scottish History

On 11 August 1892 poet Christopher Murray Grieve was born in Langholm. Grieve wrote under the pseudonym, Hugh MacDiarmid, and is considered the driving force behind Scottish Literary Renaissance which took shape during the 1920s. MacDiarmind viewed his mission as rescuing Scottish culture and modernising it to reflect 20th Century Scotland. He also tried to resurrect the Scots language as a vital part of maintaning an independent Scottish culture. His masterpiece, A Drunk Man Lokks at the Thistle, reflects his abhorrence at the way Scottish culture had developed. MacDiarmid remained a man of contradictions throughout his life being both a founder of the Naional Party of Scotland and a member of the Communist Party - although he was thrown out of both parties, but his influence as an artist can still be felt in today's Scottish writing.

On this day in 1919 Andrew Carnegie, the Dunfermline-born steel industrialist and philanthropist, died. Throughout his later life Carnegie established a number of foundations for education and research such as the Carnegie Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Carnegie himself was devastated that his attempts to prevent global war had come to nothing. In his essay, 'The Gospel of Wealth', he argued that after making their fortunes wealthy men should distribute the surplus for the general welfare; a practice he followed.

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