HE is regarded as the father of the modern spy novel but John Buchan’s less well-known political views on Scottish nationalism and fascism deserve renewed attention, according to a leading academic.
It is likely Buchan would be both shaken by contemporary politics and stirred to speak out about the surge of the extreme right if he were alive today, believes Professor Murray Pittock.
In a special lecture to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Buchan’s birth, Professor Pittock, of the University of Glasgow, aims to show how the Scot wasn’t just a literary legend but a man who was well ahead of his time on issues that still resonate today from Scottish nationalism to the rights of indigenous peoples.
“He was a bit of a prophet,” Professor Pittock told the Sunday National.
“He absolutely loathed the Nazis from the get-go in the early 1930s but in 1928 he was thinking about Mussolini and he talked about a kind of ‘Caesarism’ – a great personality at the head of a state receiving the worship of foolish, neurotic people who abase themselves before what they call a ‘strong’ man.
“Then in 1937, he wrote about the ‘universal danger’ of a kind of state idolatry establishing a ‘tyranny’ of the human soul. Buchan wanted a more educated and engaged citizenry because he worried that without that, you will slide into fascism.
“One can’t say this has lost its relevance a century down the line.”
Buchan is most well known as the author of The 39 Steps which became an Alfred Hitchcock film classic and the inspiration of further spy genres including James Bond, but Professor Pittock said he was so much more.
“What is fascinating is Buchan wrote more than 100 books and 1000 articles, while also juggling careers as a barrister, war correspondent, MP and even governor general of Canada,” said Professor Pittock.
“His storytelling prowess has continued to keep his books in the public eye, but what I find fascinating is that his political writing and thinking were so ahead of his time.
“For example, in the early 20th century, he wrote about the importance of Scottish devolution, world diplomatic relations, antisemitism and indigenous peoples’ rights.
“He had a central role in many Scottish institutions, was an early supporter of Hugh MacDiarmid and an opponent of anti-Irish racism in Scotland, as well as campaigning for votes for women and an end to slum housing. He linked education to democracy and was a fierce opponent of authoritarian populism. By the beginning of the Second World War, he was on the SS list as a Jewish sympathiser.”
Buchan also pushed hard to have Franklin D Roosevelt, the US president from 1933 to 1945, chair a European peace conference, only to be resisted by then-British prime minister Neville Chamberlain.
In addition, Buchan described the Treaty of Versailles which ended the First World War as “the most half-witted thing ever perpetrated”. The severe sanctions of the treaty created much resentment in Germany, which was exploited by Adolf Hitler in his rise to power at the helm of Nazi Germany.
Yet Buchan has been accused of being antisemitic because of the views of some of the characters in his novels and has also been described as a Tory.
“To say he was antisemitic is an extraordinary thing to say about a writer who is regarded as a righteous gentile by Jewish people, and was on the SS death list as a Jewish sympathiser,” said Professor Pittock.
“In his unpublished speeches, he said there should be a Jewish national home and an Arab home within the British Palestine mandate but there should not be a separate Jewish national state because it would recreate the ethnic particularism and bigotry of European ethnic national states.
“It’s also interesting that he made repeated comparisons between the Scots and the Jews, saying they were both extraordinarily talented people, displaced and dispersed throughout the world without a secure political homeland.”
Professor Pittock said a lot that had been written about Buchan equated him with being a Tory in an oversimplified way.
“It means for some that he isn’t enough of a Scottish writer because he was allegedly a Tory and for others, he is just great because he was a Tory and therefore not really a Scottish writer!”
Yet he was very unlike a Tory of today, according to Professor Pittock.
“He was actually a radical thinker and created working-class heroes in the Gorbals Die-Hards, and campaigned in the 1930s for improved social housing.”
It is also “completely unfair” to accuse Buchan of being a cheerleader for conventional imperialism.
“He is the premier writer of imperial Scotland because he explored more than any other writer the double nature of Scottish imperial thinking – that we were doing it but we didn’t altogether believe in it,” said Professor Pittock.
Buchan actually supported the idea of more and more self-governing nations within the British Empire until it dissolved into a confederal commonwealth. He supported self-government for Native Americans and a limit on access to the indigenous hunting grounds, even making speeches in the Cree language while he was governor general of Canada.
With regards to women, as well as supporting women’s suffrage, he lamented as far back as 1913 how many were unable to realise their potential because of societal norms.
Professor Pittock said Buchan had been regarded as a right winger probably because he was deeply cynical about human nature and did not trust the State to use money wisely. He wasn’t a libertarian, however, because he advocated for state intervention to eradicate slum housing.
“He just thought there should be limits on the state’s power,” said Professor Pittock.
With regard to Scottish nationalism, Buchan had reservations because he felt it excluded the international dimension.
“He believed Scotland’s greatest contribution was global and he was concerned about losing that,” said Professor Pittock.
At the same time, Buchan was very keen to preserve Scottish cultural institutions, Scottish autonomy and some form of Scottish political settlement as well as a Scottish presence on the global stage.
“What’s very clear is that he had great anxiety for the future of the security of the world but within that, he had a huge place in his heart and thinking for Scotland and the beacon that Scottish culture could show internationally,” Professor Pittock said.
“He was president of the Scottish Historical Society, co-founded the National Library of Scotland, supported the development of a Scottish National Theatre, was an early publisher of MacDiarmid and fronted the campaign to allow the National Trust for Scotland to buy Bannockburn for the nation in 1931. So he doesn’t at all resemble a modern Conservative, in my opinion.”
The Buchan 150 Lecture by Professor Murray Pittock will take place on March 11 at 5.30pm. The free event is hybrid but only online tickets remain. Tickets can be booked on Eventbrite.
