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| Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America | 
 enlarge | Author: James Webb
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  139 reviews
Sales Rank: 13165
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1
ISBN: 0767916891
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.049162
EAN: 9780767916899
ASIN: 0767916891
Publication Date: October 11, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
More than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to the Scots, whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the border between England and Scotland, and later in the bitter settlements of England’s Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland. Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scots-Irish migrated to America in theeighteenth century, traveling in groups of families and bringing with them not only longexperience as rebels and outcasts but also unparalleled skills as frontiersmen and guerrilla fighters. Their cultural identity reflected acute individualism, dislike of aristocracy and a military tradition, and, over time, the Scots-Irish defined the attitudes and values of the military, of working class America, and even of the peculiarly populist form of American democracy itself.
Born Fighting is the first book to chronicle the full journey of this remarkable cultural group, and the profound, but unrecognized, role ithas played in the shaping of America. Written with the storytelling verve that has earned his works such acclaim as “captivating . . . unforgettable” (the Wall Street Journal on Lost Soliders), Scots-Irishman James Webb, Vietnam combat veteran and former Naval Secretary, traces the history of his people, beginning nearly two thousand years ago at Hadrian’s Wall, when the nation of Scotland was formed north of the Wall through armed conflict in contrast to England’s formation to the south through commerce and trade. Webb recounts the Scots’ odyssey—their clashes with the English in Scotland and then in Ulster, their retreat from one war-ravaged land to another. Through engrossing chronicles of the challenges the Scots-Irish faced, Webb vividly portrays how they developed the qualities that helped settle the American frontier and define the American character.
Born Fighting shows that the Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and they have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy (only 5 percent of whom owned slaves, and who fought against what they viewed as an invading army). It illustrates how the Scots-Irish redefined American politics, creating the populist movement and giving the country a dozen presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. And it explores how the Scots-Irish culture of isolation, hard luck, stubbornness, and mistrust of the nation’s elite formed and still dominates blue-collar America, the military services, the Bible Belt, and country music.
Both a distinguished work of cultural history and a human drama that speaks straight to the heart of contemporary America, Born Fighting reintroduces America to its most powerful, patriotic, and individualistic cultural group—one too often ignored or taken for granted.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 134 more reviews...
 Indispensable book October 19, 2004
194 out of 319 found this review helpful
My Ph.D is in English, with a specialty in Southern literature, and I have a forthcoming book on Celtic Heritage in Southern literature.
Webb's book is not merely long overdue; it is going to be at the center of a firestorm, for it fails to genuflect before either Anglo-Saxon New England or Modern/Postmodern Leftism. That means that this book will inspire reviews (here and in journals) that will range from shrill denunciations equating it to Mein Kampf (for cultural Marxists make such claims reflexively about any work that can be helpful to showing the myriad faults with and deceptions of the Left) to silly light shots because the book fails to have enough 'diversity,' which is as valid a complaint as was the young James Joyce's that John M. Synge's Riders to the Sea failed as a tragedy because it did not meet Aristotelian parameters.
Born Fighting is going to terrify many people in academia, journalism, and book publishing: those Leftist 'elites' who also hated and feared Mel Gibson's films Braveheart, The Patriot, and The Passion of the Christ. Many of them will become hysterical in their attempts to smear this book and its author.
Refreshing look at the people our "Elite" hate. October 7, 2004
139 out of 179 found this review helpful
I am not done reading this book and will update this review when I am finished, but so far, it is a refreshing look the people and culture that America's elite openly hate: the rural scots-irish. They have no problem relying on these people for the bulk of the wars we have fought (Kentucky and Tenn have casualty rates five times higher than New York City), but openly loathe their culture - from country music to the near-sacred right to gun ownership.
Webb's book is a noble attempt to address these wrongs, and show the often overlook influence of these people - who's culture is so much a part of the american fabric that they are nearly invisiable.
My only "complaint" thus far is Webb's insistence on their Celtic idenity, when in fact much of the Lowlands of Scotland (where they originally came) were in fact an english speaking mixture of Angles, Saxons, Danes and Celts.
 History of the Scots-Irish September 9, 2005
87 out of 100 found this review helpful
Born Fighting by James Webb is the history of the Scots-Irish over the last 2000 years. A few highlights:
1. Scotland was effectively created by the Roman Empire when Hadrian's Wall was built across Britain at the approximate location of the current border between England and Scotland. Rome controlled Britain south of the wall and the native Celtic tribes controlled the north. (Rome also effectively created the modern boundary between France and Germany when Caesar conquered Gaul but stopped at the Rhine.)
2. After the Norman Conquest, English kings attempted repeatedly to subdue the Scots and extend their rule to all of Britain. The victories of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce maintained Scottish independence through the rein of Elizabeth I. Upon her death, the throne passed to James I of the House of Stuart who already ruled Scotland as James VI. One could almost say that Scotland thereby absorbed England, but the relative population sizes of the two countries gave England the upper hand almost from the beginning.
3. In the meantime, the Protestant Reformation had been underway in northern Europe, leaving Scotland strongly protestant (Presbyterian), England more mildly protestant (Anglican), and Ireland still Roman Catholic. To bring Ireland into the protestant fold and increase its loyalty to the British Crown, James I established the Ulster Plantation and encouraged protestant Scots to settle in Ulster starting in about 1610. These settlers from Scotland to Ireland became the Scots-Irish (or Scotch-Irish).
4. In the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the English Parliament deposed King James II principally because he attempted to reestablish a Catholic monarchy. The deposed king, with French (Catholic) aid landed in Ireland, rallied the Catholic Irish in southern Ireland and attacked the protestant settlers in Ulster. James was again defeated and exiled to France.
5. Meanwhile, various Test Acts had been enacted by the English Parliament and Crown that established the Anglican Church as the official Church of England and excluded non-Anglican Protestants, primarily Presbyterians and Puritans, from public office. A particularly harsh version was enacted in 1703 and led to the heavy migration of Scots-Irish from Ulster to America throughout the 1700s. They settled primarily in the Appalachian highlands, starting in Pennsylvania and migrating southwest to Virginia, the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee and beyond. In numbers, the Scots-Irish far exceed the other groups of British settlers described in David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed: the New England Puritans from East Anglia, the Virginia Cavaliers from the south and West of England, and the Pennsylvania Quakers from the Midlands.
6. The Scots-Irish were characterized by poverty, family ties that extended both linearly across generations and collaterally to many degrees of cousins, strongly protestant beliefs, independence, distrust of governments in general, and a readiness to fight both individually as part of a local militia. Although the Scots-Irish Presbyterians shared a faith based on Calvinism with the Puritans of East Anglia and New England, there appears to have been little love lost between these groups.
7. The Scots-Irish provided the bulk of the Confederate Army although few held any slaves. During the decades following the Civil War, their poverty was worse than before the war, reaching a nadir during the Great Depression of the 1930s. This poverty prompted another mass migration to other parts of America which was accelerated by the mobilization for World War II. As a consequence, the Scots-Irish have been distributed through most of America, except perhaps New England. Their numbers and characteristics, especially their willingness to accept and absorb spouses from other ethnic groups into their extended families, have made the Scots-Irish folkways a key part of the American character.
So, is this a recommendation of Born Fighting to others? Yes, but a conditional recommendation. First, one should read David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed (see my review) which describes and contrasts the four British groups, including the Scots-Irish, that settled America. Fischer's book is better written, broader in scope, more objective, and based on real scholarship. In contrast, Born Fighting is repetitive, focused on one ethnic group alone (making conflicts with others harder to understand), strongly Scots-Irish partisan rather than objective, and draws much of its best material from other modern authors, including extensive quotes from Fischer's book and Churchill's Birth of Britain. Still, Born Fighting was worth reading and gave me new insights, especially on the history of the Scots-Irish before their migration to America. For the record, my heritage is largely Scots-Irish.
Here are two additional suggestions. (1) David Hackett Fischer's Bound Away (see my review) which describes the migrations of Scots-Irish and others to, within and from Virginia. This book repeats some of the content of Albion's Seed but also presents new material on the migrations within and from Virginia. (2) Kevin Phillips' The Cousins' Wars which traces the recurring conflicts between the Puritans of East Anglia and New England and the Anglican Aristocracy of South and West England and the American coastal south through the English Civil War, American Revolution, and American Civil War. This book also draws heavily on Albion's Seed but adds much detail on the three wars that are its central focus. However, it appears to have a mild bias to the Puritan side.
Scots-Irish are "People of Passion" October 16, 2004
67 out of 81 found this review helpful
As my above moniker indicates, I teach school in Appalachia. I am also Scotch-Irish. Or, as the author of this book and other people say, "Scots-Irish." My ancestors settled in the Southern Highlands of Appalachia in the 1700s. This is where I was born and reared. I attended a university in the Northeast and then returned to Appalachia to teach, and here I will remain. The people about whom James Webb writes are "my people." I can relate to them and I love them deeply.
Webb refers to Scots-Irish as one of the most powerful cultural forces shaping America, producing great Presidents, soldiers, inventors, actors, and writers. He goes on to say that they have "remained invisible." I understand what he means with the word "invisible," but Scots-Irish are far from invisible in the legacy they have left for others to emulate.
Carl Mays, in his PEOPLE OF PASSION book, writes about the early Scots-Irish of the Southern Highlands as "...good-hearted people with faith in God, nature, themselves, and their neighbors." In this book, which makes a good parallel companion and somewhat of a contrast with Webb's book, Mays goes on to share 48 stories that cover the years from 1765-1965 that "demonstrate the principles, the spirit, and the character of the people upon which our nation has been built."
Unlike Webb's book, PEOPLE OF PASSION gives more credit to the Scots-Irish for working together and with others to help establish a backbone in the Southern Highlands. Mays also presents the stories of women who were extremely important to the individual families, communities, and region. I fault Webb for lacking in these two areas.
I also fault Webb for his over-emphasis on the "Fighting Scots-Irish," but, of course, this does reflect the name of the book. In the early days of our country, everyone had to "fight," so to speak. But Scots-Irish helped forge our country with much more than guns and knives. For example, as Mays writes in PEOPLE OF PASSION, John Ross, who was 7/8 Scots-Irish, 1/8 Cherokee, a graduate of private schools and college, was the main Cherokee chief for almost 40 years. His life shoots down Webb's assertion that Scots-Irish have been uneducated and imperialistic.
Is Webb's book worth reading and should it be recommended to others? Yes it should. For anyone interested in Scots-Irish or in the shaping of America, this book contains some valuable material. But it should be read with other books that cover the same subject. These books would include James Leyburn's SCOTCH-IRISH: A SOCIAL HISTORY; Nora Chadwick's THE CELTS, and THE DRUIDS; Bill Kennedy's FAITH AND FREEDOM: THE SCOTS-IRISH IN AMERICA.
Brilliant and engaging history October 21, 2004
38 out of 54 found this review helpful
As a Scots-Irish descended from good Belfast folk who came to America just before the Revolutionary War, I am thrilled by this book, with its vivid history, poignant vignettes, deep insights, and modern-day relevance. Webb has tapped into a very rich and vital vein in American culture, reclaiming not only facts but honor for this hearty, vibrant, courageous, plucky, much-disparaged, underappreciated group of great Americans. I will admit some bias and pride, but I will say that Webb's narrative will be of interest to all Americans of any ethinicity who want to understand more about our nation. The Scots-Irish are a colorful bunch, and Webb serves us well by offering a colorful and fiesty narrative. A great read!
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