How did Scotland's new parliament come about? Two remarkable events in 1997 - the General Election which resored the Labour Party to power in Britain after 18 years in opposition (and which wiped out the Tories in Scotland), and the national referendum on the establishment of a Scottish parliament - brought the parliament into being. But they were the culmination of a long period of change both in the way political institutions have been organised and in the way politics has been talked about in Scotland. This work explores this period of change through an investigation of the Scottish Nationalist movement, in particular looking at the way history and culture have shaped Scotland's political claims and identities.