This memoir is by and about George Taylor: the manuscript was handed down through generations of his family. It recalls the varied and interesting life of a man who, at the age of 50, moved his family from Kelso in the Scottish Borders to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the mid-nineteenth century. George Taylor was a gardener and nurseryman and, when settled in Kalamazoo, he soon established a successful business supplying plants and hedging. He was an award-winning horticulturalist and was responsible for the introduction of the cultivation of celery to the USA. In the course of hearing about George Taylor's life - including the death of three of his four wives in childbirth - we encounter people such as the widow of the man who supposedly served as the inspiration for Robert Burns' "Tam o' Shanter", and events such as the Great Fire of Chicago. From Kelso to Kalamazoo is all too rare a primary source testament to the realities of emigration from the lowlands of Scotland to the USA.

The movement of people from a rural to an urban environment is one of the most striking features of Scotland's past. This movement was the result of a shift in the general pattern of work from agricultural to industrial in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This was followed by a notable shift in the pattern of urban work, from manufacturing industry to the provision of services, in the late twentieth century. Beneath these general patterns there lies a myriad of individual lived experiences, also explored in this volume.As well as outlining the history of settlement and work, this volume considers the working lives of those engaged in feeding, housing and protecting the population, those who work to keep the population healthy, and those who are engaged in work of the imagination rather than work to meet material needs. Since the nineteenth century an increasing number of services have been controlled by government, both local and central. The importance of public service is discussed, as is the industrial way of life and the ways in which workers have to co-operate, in the interest of their employer, themselves and society.