Rating: 
Summary: Do yourselves a favor, read this book....
Review: I read this book many many years ago. I had studied folklore before reading it, and found the study of folklore to be more of an education than most anything else I studied in college that contributed to a world view that was really very large and comprehensive and also easy to relate to.
I am always drawn back to Albions Seed on a regular basis, something invariably reminds me of this study of lore, and history. I learned about the regions these groups came from in Great Britian, their geographic locations and how these issues constituted the values taken on by these people ( or perhaps lack of values that are substantial). Also the effects these groups had on our country and it's development.
I am most impressed with the Quakers contrbution to this country by way of opening PA. as the first colony to grant religious tolerance to all groups, and to the rugged individualists who were from the borderlands of Scotland and Ireland who had to be so rugged to protect the borders they fought over constantly, and who settled in the Appliachians. The puritans, I feel brought very litte that I regard highly to this country, and could have stayed home, thanks to them we have a work ethic that I feel is insane! I don't recall enough about the group that settled in the South, so I plan on reading it again and this other book by Hackett as well. Do yourself a favor, read this book!
I believe this book should be on every library shelf!
Another book I would recommend that is not a study in folkways , but an important work is David Hawkins work, Power verses Force. I draw some correlations myself between these books althought others may not.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating descripton of USA folkways
Review: This book is very readable and lengthy. I did not want to put it down as it was well written and full of interesting detail of the four seed British colonies. It is a cultural history of the colonies and describes house design, speech, dress, food ways, marriage ways, and many other cultural patterns. I found myself fascinated at how these familiar folkways developed but more fascinated by how they still control our attitudes even today! It is Fischer's thesis that the different ideas of freedom developed in each region had "defects in expression" but together created a stronger expression of liberty. His discussion of liberty is particularly timely today as we are in the process of giving up some of our freedoms in response to terrorist attacks.
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Summary: A Great Genealogical Helper
Review: As an avid family historian, I found this book to be one of the most fascinating I have read concerning the great exodus of people from Great Britain to the United States. It also gave me great insight as to where my ancestors could have come from and why. Included in each section is mention of the customs, dress, diet and naming patterns of the various groups. It is a thick book but I read it as if it were a best-seller mystery! For any genealogist with British roots, this book is a must-read.
Rating: 
Summary: Our English roots
Review: Very good book. While it is great to bask in our multiculturalism, I believe it is also necessary to acknowledge the British roots of the American nation. British Americans have no ethnic parades and/or celebrations and thus are often unable to be proud of their heritage which is often attacked. There is nothing wrong in being a WASP. English Americans have been made to feel bad about their heritage that they don't even acknowledge it. Case in point according to the 1980 census the most common ancestry was ENGLISH (50 Million Americans) but is down to 32 million in 1990, and 28 million in 2000. Now where did those 20 Million English Americans go in 10years? Were they wiped out? I think not, they are still around but find no need/or ashamed in asserting their roots, this while the number of Irish and Germans increased and/or remained steady. Plus, the states with most English and/or British ancestry in 1980 had more "American" or "no responses" response to the Ethnic origin question in 90 and 2000 at the expense of the English response. The editorial saying that 80% of americans have no British ancestry at ALL is misleading since the question to the ethnic origin portion asks you to only list 2 ethnicities (what r u mostly) and being that most Americans of British ancestry don't feel the urge to assert their origin as someone of German/Irish background; I reckon a good 70% of Americans have some British ancestry (including Afro-Americans).I know this had little to do with the book but just something extra to think about while you're reading.
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Summary: America's Seed
Review: Enteraining and full of intriguing tidbits, this very readable survey and synthesis of American culture is groundbreaking and important. My original ancestors on my mother's side came from Virginia going back in the days of colonial Jamestown. Growing up in Virginia and New Jersey I had an innate sensitivity to the conflicting folkways of both Northern and Southern cultures. Multiculturalism gains a new meaning when we see that England's complex folkways of the 17th and 18th century may have had the profoundest influences on our culture. In fact, the cultures of England (and Ireland) are the root or mother of American traditions and tendencies. While many Americans smugly boast the exoticism and complexity of their ancestral forebears or wallow in their "interesting" immigrant past, they forget that they are speaking English and have been assimilated or are being assimilted (in the case of many immigrants from the Third World) into a culture planted by Albion's Seed.
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Summary: It's interesting, but I had some problems.
Review: Thr book is fairly interesting as a history of colonial America. I think the four segments had all been fairly well sketched out & made quite colorful. I'm glad I read it, not that I had a choice, but I did have a few problems. For one I think the book comes very close to just saying "you know those stereotypes you have in your mind, well they are completely right more right than any historian would be" In fact it comes close to just flat out saying Southerners are inherently bad people, & it does this in some ways that are factually inaccurate. West Virginia's rate of overall violent crime is among the lowest in the nation, & it's current murder rate is only slightly higher than Massachusettes. Granted that could be ten years worth of cultural change, but he seems confident such change would not occur. Further I think he underestimates the cultural change that later immigrants had in the conclusion, & also underestimates distinctive Western subcultures. Much of Louisiana's culture traces to earlier French rule. Both good; music food etc & bad; descriptions of disorder & lawlessness. While many elements of modern New England liberalism relate to specific Irish Catholic needs or desires. While the Northern Plains lack of violent crime could be linked in least partly to Scandinavian or Germanic influences as they had their own views on violence & order. (Scandinavia has fairly low rates of violence, lower in some parts than New England as North Dakota's is also well below Massachusetts or Connecticut) Also as mentioned New York & New Jersey are almost mentioned as a footnote. While other colonies that don't fit these four ways are equally ignored, Rhode Island & South Carolina being prime examples. I think regionalism is alive & well, but somewhat different than he states. Oddly for a 900 page book it's remarkably simplistic in many respects. Still the book is good for colonial America, & really makes one sympathetic to Quakers. That was probably the most positive & well thought out parts of the book. Indeed I came away feeling better about 18th c. Quakers than the ones today.
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Summary: Fastest 900 pages I ever read
Review: I found this book impossible to put down. While reading about one of the four folkways, I found myself anxious to get on to the next ones to compare and contrast it with the others. For such a large, encompassing social history of the U.S., its prose is amazingly readable, filled with interesting anecdotes. From Fischer's excellent book, I gained new insights into the folkways of my own family, which had its early roots in the Southern Highlands and Virginia Cavalier folkways. In addition, I gained a whole new respect for the Quakers' important contributions to the nation. I'm amazed that such an enlightened group has dwindled to sect status today. Fianlly, I'll chime in with a couple of other reviewers here whose biggest complaint was that the author hasn't yet published his next book in this series, the volume on plantation life.
Rating:
Summary: A nonfiction page-turner
Review: Like another reviewer here, my biggest complaint is that the author's next book in his series isn't out yet. I couldn't put this book down. It explained a lot about my own Virginia and Southern Highlands family as well as the bellicose behavior of those now running our country. I came away from this wonderful book with a new appreciation of the Quakers' important and all-but-forgotten contributions to our culture
Rating:
Summary: beautifully researched, beautifully written
Review: An amazing work of socio-cultural history, and an amazing read. It's the book I'm currently recommending to anyone who will listen. Even if you don't normally like history. It's about 900 pages long, and it leaves you wanting more (I kid you not).
Rating:
Summary: Albion's Seed
Review: Five stars is not enough for this book.
Anyone with the even the slightest interest in our history should have this book. It explains our early history in a way that is easily understood and points out why different areas, right up to the present time, have such diverse ideas and customs. For those of us who have English ancestors, we are shown where we came from, when we came and ultimately, shows us who we are. The best book of our history that I have ever encountered.
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