Rating: 
Summary: Much More than a "Roots" for Anglo Americans
Review: A fascinating, well-written and enjoyable book that goes much further than tracing the roots of various British types in the United States. Because the groups described by Hackett-Fischer were among the earliest European settlers in America, they set the pattern for government and society for all the others who came afterward. The continuance of these societal strains, and their geographic proliferation through the country as it expanded, is what makes this book as important as it is. For anyone who wants to know why the United States works the way it does....and why Minnesota, for example, is more like Massachusetts than Missouri ... this book is the place to start. What makes it even more remarkable is that, despite the monumental nature of the topic, the book is fun to read, with a pleasant style and a wicked eye for telling detail. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Good book to see why Anglos/Whites act the way they do
Review: I took a Colonial America undergraduate course and used this book.
I see why there is so much bias and racism in this country.
You guys can't even get along with each other, much less with other cultures.
After reading "Chicano Psychology" by Martinez and Mendoza, it solidifies everything that "minorities" in this country think of them.
You guys make the seven deadly sins seem to be your "mission statement."
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Found Something - other books to look up
Review: Author David Fischer has definitely found some powerful, long-lasting currents in American society and traced them back to England. Authors of other books have noted some of these trends, but perhaps not been as conscious of their origins. I urge those who appreciated _Albion's Seed_ to check out The Cousins' Wars by Kevin Phillips, and then _Warmaking and American Democracy_ by Michael Pearlman, especially the latter's chapter on the American Revolution. Be careful when you do the latter though - you might fall over laughing at the parallels with _Albion's Seed_.
Rating:
Summary: Accurately depicts Quakers.
Review: Before I bought this remarkable book, I read the reviews and saw that a number of readers thought it was weak on Quakers. The book is spot on about traditional Quakers. I have made a personal study of that issue. The problem is that Quakerism after it emerged from quietism changed its focus and by World War I became strongly identified with pacificism, rather than its other testimonies, and that attracted new adherents who were opposed to American foreign policy in the twentieth century. In the result, a brilliant book accurately depicting the Pennsylvania Quakers who supported Benjamin Franklin and spawned the expression, "Philadelphia lawyer."
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: This book is absolutly amazing and goes a long ways to explaining why America is the way it is today. This book also explained alot of things in my family and my community that I wasn't consciously aware of and took for granted. Personally my heritage mixed but mostly Midwestern or Midlands as the author calls it. Frankly I think the author kind of has a hard time figuring out the Quakers and their folkways. Most of what I've gathered from the book and my own experiences is that Midlander's have always been opposed to wars of agression from the "Copperheads" of the Civil War era to the America First movement of World War Two and on through Vietnam etc... Midlanders also prefer to live life plain and simple, even in a rich way. They love hard work, loathe laziness and illegitimacy and strongly cherish civil liberties as much now as they did in the Seventeen Hundred's when Pennsylvania was founded as a land of enterprize and 'tolerance'.
Rating:
Summary: Why Yanks is Yanks and Southerner's are gentlemen
Review: If you have ever wondered why Yankee's are yanks and southerners are southerners, David Hacket Fischer's Albion's Seed is must reading. In this first of five volumes dealing with American historiography, the author colorfully describes the original immigrants who came to populate our great land. By examining the various twenty-four "folkways" of the four waves of immigrants that populated our land from 1629 to 1775. Using these folkways as his acrylic, Fischer paints a picture of our early settlers, which is as rich and colorful as it is varied. These folkways have, in various forms, persisted through the present and have been even been adopted by newcomers to these cultural regions. Each of these four waves originated from distinct regions in Great Britain and each was characterized by unique cultural folkways that have shaped American culture since. Fischer has done remarkable work in linking the past to our present culture. The histories of voting patterns, black's and women's suffrage, and even wealth distribution today can be understood by examining the profound effects each of these "waves" has had on our regional cultural development. From 1629-41, the first "wave" of settlers was the Puritans fleeing religious persecution in eastern England. They settled in the Massachusetts Bay area bringing with them four libertarian ideas: collective liberty, individual liberty, soul liberty and freedom from the tyranny of circumstance with all four collectivized in the concept of 'ordered liberty' for God's chosen few. The second "wave" arrived from the south of England and settled Virginia and the Carolinas during 1642-75. This wave was predominantly made of the second born sons of Southern England's armigers and their indentured servants. They too were fleeing oppression having been beaten back fighting for Charles I and II. (Virginia was the last English territory to renounce allegiance to Charles I and their affirmation of Charles II predates the restoration.) Their idea of liberty was a hegemonic liberty, which allowed them the right of laisser asservir or the freedom to enslave. This hegemonic liberty was at the heart of their culture and is evident in lesser degrees today. 1675-1725 was the period of the Friend's (Quakers) migration from the northern Midlands of Britain to Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Their idea of liberty was best characterized by the concept of 'reciprocal liberty' and serves as the basis for modern libertarianism. This concept decidedly influenced many of the framers of our constitution. Fischer maintains it is this concept of reciprocal liberty that has most shaped our current national concept of liberty. The fourth wave from Northern Britain to the North American back-country began in 1717. The magnitude of this movement was huge as compared to the migrations preceding it, with more than a quarter-million people populating the American back-country by 1775. Demographically similar to the previous groups, these back-country settlers distinguished themselves from the others by populating America not to play out some bold religious experiment or to escape religious persecution, rather they came for material betterment. Coupled to and ascendant from their concept of 'natural liberty' came their system of order known as "lex talionis', or the rule of retaliation. They were rugged, self-reliant individuals who had little use for organized law. David Fischer has crafted a superb work linking our past with the present. His exhaustive use of references and tables and a writing style that challenges the reader without being pedantic, combine to make this text a most enjoyable read for anyone teaching history and for those who hope to understand why we Americans are as we are.
Rating:
Summary: mindaltering
Review: Every so often a book comes along that changes how you understand the world. This happens on the mega-level, of course - imagine what it felt like to read the first edition of Origin of Species. But now and again it happens in our own day. Guns, Germs and Steel is such a book. Reflections in Bullough's Pond. Silent Spring. But certainly I would put Albion's Seed at the top of any such list. Read it and you will never read a daily paper the same way again. It will change how you understand America.
Rating:
Summary: The cornerstones of our culture
Review: As with several other people, the biggest complaint I have with this book is that Prof. Fischer hasn't yet followed up with further works on U.S. cultural history. But what's here is marvelous. Fischer traces the distinctive folkways and religious influence of the four great waves of English emigration to the American colonies, and shows how they combined to make modern USAmerica. I have 19th century immigrant roots, and have never lived in the South or New England. I can't therefore confirm or dispute what Fischer and the various reviewers say about the distinctive regional U.S. differences that persist there today, and how they go back to the original English immigrants. But as a modern USAmerican from California, I can see the various strands that make up our general culture in each of the four founding regions. This is a long book, perhaps a bit too long, but I recommend it highly, and since discovering it I automatically read any book Fischer produces. I have yet to read a bad one by him. Now let's have further volumes in the series!
Rating:
Summary: Field guide to WASPS
Review: In general, this book deserves the high praise many have lavished on it. The breadth and sheer BULK of historical evidence is overwhelming. The cultural differences Fischer traces back to Britain can indeed still be seen as competing streams in modern American society. The book does have a few notable weaknesses. Fischer seems to have some trouble getting a handle on the Quakers, and New York and New Jersey don't seem to fit into his four-culture scheme at all (despite the crucial role their inhabitants had in the settling of the Old Northwest). Also, while the author's drawings are satisfactory, reproductions of paintings and photos would have been preferrable. Still, this is an impressive scholarly tour de force, and I find myself referring to it often, as a sort of field guide to the amazing varieties of English-rooted culture which is part of the common ground of American society.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful history lesson
Review: Albion's Seed is, simply put, the finest history book I have read. In tracing America's early settlement back to England in four distinct waves, Fischer's incredible scholarship convinces the reader that America's future was indelibly marked by its English past. On top of his research, Fischer is an engaging writer and intertwines stories with data. I loved the book in graduate school, and I use its lessons now as an 8th grade history teacher. For those of college level or beyond, I whole-heartedly endorse the use of this book.
| 
