Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America

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Summary: A "must" reference for any serious historiographer!
Review: "Albion's Seed" by David Hackett Fischer explains in clear understandable language how four waves of English migration to these shores in the 17th century forever impacted on who and what we would become as Americans. The "folkways" that they brought with them have, to this day, remained, and traveling through what were once the original 13 colonies, one can still see and hear what our original English forebears brought with them, if you look and listen close enough. In particular, one of the more revealing things about the book is the explanation of the deeper causes of our American Civil War, which we are always taught in history classes was rooted in slavery. Fischer goes beyond the obvious to point out a basic conflict of "folkways" that had begun back on English soil with the English Civil War between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads, who on American soil would become the Southerners and the Yankees. This deeper cause explains why even today echoes of the Civil War remain in the political differences between North and South. This book is a very important reference for anyone interested in any variety of topics, from genealogy to linguistics to history to architecture to urban planning and so much more. Fischer explains how each of these cultures had unique patterns of town planning, marriage, food, death, birth, speech, religion, education and more. Jam packed full of important information, this book belongs in the library of anyone who has an interest in who we are and why we Americans are such a pluralistic nation. I cannot recommend this book enough, and eagerly await other books in this series on the cultural history of America. This book explained so much to me about my own family and I saw a microcosm of the age old North-South conflict in my own maternal grandparents. My grandfather was of old Cavalier stock and was born and raised in the Deep South. My grandmother was of New England Irish stock that had married into old Yankee blood. They bickered about everything imaginable, and I often wondered why their frequent disagreements. However, when grandfather died, I found out that in spite of it all, grandmother truly loved him, and that it was just her New England ways that caused the constant clashes with her Southern Cavalier husband. I found myself at times laughing out loud as I recognised speech patterns in my own family that have been passed down to me, and other assorted echoes of folkways from my family's past as well were recognisable in Fischer's book. I came to know myself better through a better understanding of who my family is, where they came from and why they acted the way they did. So from a genealogist's standpoint, this book is also of tremedous value. VERY RECOMMENDED! FIVE STARS!

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Summary: Hit The Nail On The Head
Review: Why is the North so different from the South? Prof. Fischer's explanations really hit home to me as a Southern product of both the Virginia cavalier culture and the austere, Calvinist, Scotch-Irish culture. What both sides of my family share is a deep mistrust of Yankees, particularly New Englanders, whom they fear want to impose their ideas of freedom upon everyone else. I think Prof. Hackett's work is very illuminating as to why the North is policticaly liberal and the South conversely conservative. A fact few would argue but intil this book few could explain.

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Summary: So Where Are the Other Seeds?
Review: Like most of the other reviewers, I was fascinated by Albion's Seeds. I have been waiting for many years now for Mr. Fischer to continue his extraordinary work by treating the other seed cultures that shape the US. Please return to this theme, Mr. Fischer!

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Summary: Very Interesting Book!
Review: While at times I felt the author was stretching to make a point (if you look hard enough long enough many things will support a thesis, but SHOULD they?), all-in-all I believe this is a very important work that will forever affect the way I view regionalism and British/American history. Especially intriguing are the characteristics that were transplanted from the four regions of Britain to four regions of America. I was reared in the Highlands (and yes, I do have many of the characteristics he attributes to men in the Highlands, bad and good, and went to a military school and I am career military...) In the past 24 years I have lived in all four regions of the United States, and I have marvelled at how different the usual attitudes, values, and behavior continue to be, even though it is "accepted" by many Americans that regional differences have been blurred in the past few decades. I think not, and I have lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, Rhode Island, California, Washington State, Texas, Maryland, and now Virginia. The book also helped "round out" some details about my ancestors early days in Virginia immediately following the English Civil War of 1642-1649.

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Summary: Powerful explanation for paradoxes in American culture
Review: This is a very detailed but highly readable work on the four separate immigrations of very different English-speaking peoples to the American colonies which shaped the political, cultural, social and religious values of the country. The first section treats the New England Puritans, the second the Virginia "cavaliers", the third the Quakers of the Pennsylvania/Delaware regions, and the fourth the Scots/Irish. Each came from distinctive areas of the British Isles, and each had significantly different life styles, beliefs, and attitudes which shaped the future country. As a fascinated lifelong student of American history, I have been intrigued by the new information and Professor Fischer's fascinating construct which offers a cogent analysis of the often conflicting values in American society.

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Summary: Overated and simplistic, relying mostly on secondary works.
Review: Albion's Seed has met with much critical acclaim. It is, however, a simplistic book which draws outrageous conclusions based on mostly secondary evidence. The section on Quakers is particularly weak and continues the same tired and worn out ideas of Frederick Tolles' about the Quaker transatlantic community from the 1950s. Albion's Seed offers simple answers for complex questions concerning the Enlgish transatlantic community and assumes that English culture, wherever it came from, was so powerful that it overcame all barriers of time and space. Things are just not that cut and dry. Mr. Fisher's love affair with England is evident all throughout the bok but in this case it clouded his judgment severely.

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Summary: Absolutely fascinating
Review: Fischer showed me a view of American settlement and the origin of our customs and folkways which I had never seen. I hold a B.A. in history and am 60 years old. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more of our origins, especially the origins of our different conceptions of Liberty.

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Summary: Best book on Colonial America, period!
Review: A fantastic analysis and synthesis of why we are irretrievably British. I understand my parents attitudes, speech and culture so much better after reading it. My West VA mother actually speaks like he describes. My clansman descended father speaks, acts--IS just like he describes. It has been indispensible in my family history research. So many of my family`s traits and customs are explained as cultural and not just family quirks. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I will eagerly await further works by Fisher

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Summary: It tells us who we are
Review: This is the most important book on American sociology since DeTocqueville. Identifying four strains of early American culture, it shows how these competing cultures have shaped the United States and continue to define us today. Why did American feminists conclude that President Clinton did indeed rape Juanita Broadrick, but that his behavior was acceptable? It may have less to do with politics and more to do with the fact that in early Virginia society, men were expected to be sexual predators. How can mutli-cultural America avoid fragmentation? See how early Pennsylvania society created institutions which allowed various cultures to flourish under one authority. Covering everything from cuisine to politics, from speech patterns to architecture, Mr. Fischer, America's most important historian, gives us a better understanding of the present and the future.

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Summary: An insight into how things came to be ... genealogy must
Review: I found the book to be one of the most informative books that I have read on the forming of America.