For Best Laid Schemes, Scotland’s history and development are best covered two 1938 films The Wealth of a Nation and the Face of Scotland. Made for the Empire Exhibition by Realist Films, both give a well-paced and direct, if unrelenting, overview of Scotland’s hard, unforgiving past.

We can uncover facts, attitudes, myths and ideas woven together to form what was an accepted, popular history of Scotland.

• The unremitting commentary sums up a certain thron pride in getting to 1938 in spite of ' ... cold, cloudy, heavy with rain, .... meagre ... coarse ... stern ... hardy ... ungrateful land ... racked with wars ...' How history and geography were stacked against Scotland.
• Frontier of the Industrial Age. A piston-paced run through of industrialisation and the heyday for Scottish capital. From Adam Smith to the Depression of the 1930s. From boom to bust and a hopeful look beyond.
• Hard Place, Hard Times, Hard Knox. This difficult environment and troubled history gave rise to a hard uncompromising view of life. We are familiar today, from the USA to the Middle East, with religious fundamentalism based on hardline certainty. This clip perhaps exaggerates the historical impact of the creed espoused by Scottish Christian John Knox. It did influence Scottish life and culture greatly but not exclusively.
• The school of hard Knox. The reformed Christian church tried to organise schools for all children in all parts of Scotland. Coupled with the four existing universities, Scotland became a world leader in mass literacy and continued education. This principled provision survived centuries of division, war and civil war over religious doctrine.