Born Fighting : How the Scots-Irish Shaped America

Rating:
Summary: Wasted Promise
Review: As someone who considers himself a student of the literature on the Scots-Irish, this book was largely a disappointment. It begins with great promise, exploring the roots of latter-day American Scots-Irish culture in the long and bloody history of the Borders, building on two of the best books on the subject, David Hackett Fisher's Albion's Seed and George MacDonald Fraser's Steel Bonnets: A History of the Scottish Border Reivers. Webb actually manages to add somewhat to the literature in this respect and this part of the book proves to be an interesting exploration of the roots of the culture, particularly, I would imagine, for someone reading about the subject for the first time. His premise that the Scots-Irish are a forgotten ethnic group, long misunderstood and taken for granted, is very much correct, but it's been done already, and better, in the aforementioned books he builds on. For those that need to understand the inherently combative culture of the "red states" in fairly short order, however, this will do the trick.

The book's downfall, though, is Webb's insistence in later chapters in interjecting romanticized stories about his own Scots-Irish family's American experience. At first I felt for the family he describes, as it very much is the story of my own family's experience. Ultimately, though, his constant harping on their hardships is the equivalent of hearing about your grandfather walking 10 miles to school in the snow. Every Southerner has such family tales, most in spades, so it quickly becomes tiresome, repetitive, and uninteresting. Furthermore, Webb occasionally launches into a preachy phillipic on some personal subject- there are scores of pages on the Vietnam War that are somewhat interesting, but scarely related to the subject at hand- which seem totally inappropriate for a serious work of non-fiction. He clearly either had no editor or told his editor to go to hell at some point before this thing went to press.

Ultimately, however, it's worth reading if you are at all interested in the subject, and it's a subject that deserves more attention. It reminds me most of another promising but disappointing book on the subject, Grady McWhiney's Cracker Culture. That book, like this one, is so full of anger and frustration at the years of persecution and mischaracterization suffered by the Scots-Irish, that the ranting and raving overshadow the value of the scholarship. Ironically (and unfortunately) both these books also reinforce the old stereotype about Scots-Irish Southerners that led them to be called crackers to begin with: that they're boastful, rambling blowhards who cannot organize their own thoughts. That's a damn shame.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful! Thoughtful! Refreshingly Honest!
Review: For those who are wondering how the Republicans were able to carry the 2004 elections, they just need to read this thoughtfully insightful work. James Webb has thoroughly captured the spirit, ethos and ancestry of a people that continues to defy "politically correct" conventions.

While most bookstores stock this in the sociology section of the store, Mr. Webb based his writings on a complex, and sometimes contradictory, history of a people that built the nation. He has woven together a tapestry of history, both oral and written, into a concise chronology that supports his assertions that the Scots-Irish are more than "rednecks" or downtrodden "white folk". What he has captured in his history is the essence of the Scots-Irish: Assimilators! This great nation was built upon the melting pot principle where all creeds and nationalities can come together to form a single, united, nation that is secure in its freedoms for all. By pointing out that the Scots-Irish are truly a people of acceptance Mr. Webb shows that this culture, more than any, has shown that the American way is assimilation into traditional values of religion, freedom for all, and the ability to go your own way without fear of suppression. He goes to great lengths to point out the contradictions in the culture that actually strengthen it: standing in church rather than bow to God; pious, puritanical principles but willing to look the other way for a little drinking and merry-making; resentful of "big government" that tries to rule the lives of all people but willing to back a national leader that has earned their respect.

In essence, Mr. Webb painted an illuminating thesis that shows how the above attributes led to Andrew Jackson's election upon a populist platform. In fact, he is able to show how this same legacy of intolerance for big government led to the Reagan populist election and even the defeat of Al Gore in 2000. In short, it should come as no surprise that leaders that run on a marginally populist platform will continue to reap the support of this cultural phenomena.

Mr. Webb's final contribution is to show how this is the one group that has resisted joining the "hyphenated American" craze. Most people rarely hear of the Scots-Irish because they refer to themselves collectively, in the past as now, as Americans rather than Scots-Irish Americans.

For those looking to understand a very unique culture and the backbone that forms the strength of a nation, I highly recommend taking the time to read this wonderful work. In time, it will go down as a masterpiece of cultural study.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome. If you ever wondered what you are - READ!
Review: I am fortunate that despite my relative young age (mid-40's) to have seen my grandmother in Kentucky chop wood, cook on a wood stove, hitch up her mules. I've heard the stories of my parents, most of them not believed by my first wife or any of her "Yankee" friends. I've seen the little White Baptist Churches in the Hills, the one room school houses, the "baccy patches, subsistance gardens and the toughness of character. This is an awesome story that for me has connected all these "hillbilly" stories into a proud historical quilt, and explains the economic, social, political and even behavioral attitudes so deep within my soul.
I am outside the Bell Curve of Scots-Irish, I've made it financially, graduated UCLA, but at my core I despise the rich, privilage and arrogant, and believe strongly in each person proving their worth and courage..... read the book if you've heard you are Irish, or Scotish or Scots-Irish - this book will clarify alot for you and will explain better how the USA went from Freedom for a few wealthy Gentlemen like Washington and Jefferson, to one in which religous freedom, and ground up democracy eventually took place. If you think the British came for Religous Freedom, pioneered this country or even that the bulk of them fought the Revolutionary War - you need this book. In case you are wondering - I review under the name Black for privacy. I am solidly Scots-Irish with a bit of Cherokee thrown in. (which I did not quite understand until - yes until I read this book!)

Thank you Mr. Webb.

Rating:
Summary: Born Fighting : How the Scots-Irish Shaped America
Review: I had to log on and write a review of James Webb's brilliant and wonderful book " Born Fighting : How the Scots-Irish Shaped America." I bought the book in November, and after skimming through it and reading the first two chapters, I immediately ordered a copy for my father as a Christmas present. After finishing it, he told me it was the greatest present he had ever received, and that many of Webb's passages brought tears to his eyes. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in American History, and for those millions of Scots-Irish Americans unaware of their heritage this is a must-read.

In "Born Fighting" author James Webb chronicles the millennial struggle of the Scots-Irish people from fighting to preserve their independence against the Romans and the English, through their migration to Ireland, then to the hardscrabble Appalachian frontier and beyond. Webb describes how the values of these fiercely independent, determined and impoverished people pervaded the society and culture of America, and how their influence is reflected in such diverse institutions as NASCAR auto racing, country music, the evangelical movement, the U.S. Armed Forces, and American Democracy itself.

Weaving distant history with personal family history, Webb details the struggle of these proud, impoverished people through their oppression by and resistance to the Romans, the English, the Irish Catholics, the Anglo-American pseudo-aristocracy of the Colonies, and the latter's successors, the so-called "Eastern Establishment." Through it all, the Scots-Irish survive oppression, scorn, war and poverty by drawing on their bottom-up, rather than top down social and political structure, and their collective fighting spirit to triumph. Webb's wonderful personal stories of his own family history cannot help but resonate with those Scots-Irish of today with similar backgrounds and experiences. It certainly did with me.

Until I read this book, like many of the millions of Americans of Scots-Irish descent, I never knew I had an ethnic heritage. I am now glad to know that not only do I have one, it is a proud one and storied one. I owe a debt of gratitude to Webb for imparting this to me through this magnificent book.

My father used to tell us as children that we were "Scotch-Irish." I didn't know what that meant at all until I took European History in high school. As an adult, I did some genealogical research on my family, gleaning what seemed to me to be loosely connected facts from church and census records. "Born Fighting" was invaluable in providing some context to what little I was able to learn.

Along with my aunt, I traced my family history to the mid-1700s in western Virginia, through my Great-Great Grandfather who enlisted in the Confederate Army in Charlottesville, VA on the day after First Manassas. He served in the 57th Virginia Infantry, part of Gen. Pickett's division at Gettysburg that was virtually wiped out on the third and decisive day of that bloody battle. My aunt found a picture of him at the Gettysburg Battlefield Visitors Center in his uniform, of which I have a copy.

My father, the son of a five-and-ten-cent store manager in the Depression-era South became the first of our Scots-Irish family to graduate high school. If that wasn't enough his high school grades got him into an Ivy League school, borrowing, washing dishes, waiting tables, and tending bar to pay his tuition and earn his degree. His sacrifice and hard work smoothed the road for his four children, two of whom are lawyers, one an economist, and the other a mathematics teacher. After reading this book, my father told me he had always been ashamed of his modest "white trash" or "redneck" background, but having read this book he could finally be proud of who he is and where he came from.

I have a 4 year old son and I am going to give him a copy of this wonderful account of our ancestors as soon as he is old enough to appreciate it. I want him to know what I now know about the hardships and difficulties of our ancestors and how they got us to where we are now. Their story has made me appreciate how far we have come.

To Mr. Webb, I say thank you for telling the story of our colorful and prominent ethnic heritage, and the role our forebears played in the evolution of our great republic.



Rating:
Summary: The Thread of Truth
Review: James McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom) wrote, "Beneath Every Stereotype is a substrata of the truth." Mr. Webb make a very strong case for the Scots-Irish being the central piece in the American cultural puzzle. And why are the Americans so different from the Europeans? DeTocqueville noticed the separation way back in 1840. Mr. Webb tells us why. The Scots-Irish (he explains very well what this means) diaspora lies at the heart of America. Although strident in his tone and intensely personal at times, Mr. Webb is often profound in his insight. If you want to understand what makes America tick, read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A race in search of a Great Captian
Review: James Webb's book telling the history of the Scots-Irish is a riveting tale of his love of his people, the love of his family and the path of those who came before him from the time of the Roman Empire to today.

The book was an excellent overall read and should be read by anybody trying to understand this country and the people in it. As a northerner who grew up with a bias against the south (although my ancestors came here 100 years I identify as Sicilian rather than Yankee)it was particularly good and fairly true.

The Pre-US history of the people is a page turner as it establishes the culture and beliefs of the race (yes I said race)

The story of the people to the civil war is also great but I think he looks at Jackson with rose colored eyes concerning the American Indian. (yes I said Indian; any person born in American is a native American)I believe Jackson looked at the American Indian as a conquered race, a worthy foe but a conquered one, thus he was willing to respect a defeated Red Stick, take in a young lad to raise but saw no compunction in ignoring their Supreme court victory. To him they were a conquered race and had no standing. (Marshall has made his ruling let him enforce it.) This would be more in keeping with the story he is telling. Of course any historian who defines Jackson simply by his relationship with American Indians isn't worth his salt, they would be the type to would define Jefferson only as a slave holder. Jackson's impact on the country past and present is huge and deserves all the attention Webb gives it.

The brick wall he hits is the civil war and its aftermath. His brave and worthy ancestors followed the wrong captains, brave and leading from the front, noble, but wrong. They followed the very people who put them down. It didn't have to be so. Every southern state except South Carolina provided regiments to the Union and the Great Captains who led the Union to victory were just as worthy (and just as Scots-Irish!). The attempt to divorce slavery from the war is as laughable as the modern liberal attempt to divorce the war on terror from Iraq. His pooh poohing of the Emancipation Proclamation forgets Lincoln primary reason for fighting the war UNION. Of course the people understood what it would mean in the end.

On reconstruction he makes some good points but neglects the fact that of COURSE the North owned everything. The South spent its wealth on its cause and was devastated. How could the north NOT own everything? He is correct about the manipulation and revenge but after a war so bloody it was inevitable particularly with a conquered foe that didn't believe itself conquered! He is correct about the mistakes but I don't see how it could have turned out any other way.

Once the war is past the book grows stronger again, WWI & WWII and the FDR sections are great. He seems to miss that his Grandfather was the perfection of the Scots-Irishman. He was loyal to the great captains but was unwilling to follow what he knew was wrong and paid the price for it. He was the definition of a great Captain and it speaks poorly of his fellows that they didn't follow.

His final chapters are excellent history and commentary on America. I conclude that the descendents of those would have manipulated his ancestors are the elites desperately clutching power, but being thwarted by the independent clans (united by the internet). What is ironic is that the same weakness that led to their downfall, the cliquish following of the great captain is the weakness of the left who's great captains such as Moore, Dean and Jackson are not so great or so brave.

His overall thesis is correct. The Scots Irish values that have entered American culture (Values that we Sicilians already had I might add) are a great strength of America and we as Americans are blessed to have it and obliged to understand it. Thanks to Mr. Webb's book, we can.


Rating:
Summary: Webb is right about academia and the media
Review: Let's get the full disclosure out of the way up front. I am a PhD physicist who spent a year in Vietnam as a communications officer in the artillery. I also was at Harvard in 1967-9 as a graduate student when radical groups barracaded the dean in University Hall and tried to close the university. Webb is absolutely correct about the far left leanings and preachings of elite university faculties in the Vietnam era. While universities should be among the most open-minded institutions in our society, they certainly were NOT in the 60's and 70'3 when I was a student.

Webb is also right about who fought in Vietnam. It was rarely the elite who went but it also was not a war fought disproportionately on the backs of black Americans either, in contradiction of the current "politically-correct" revisionist history.

Webb does his Scots-Irish people proud by finally telling their European history and what happened to them in America. The liberals will try to toast Webb but it is refreshing to finally read a candid, politically-accurate (not politically-correct) social history.

Rating:
Summary: A True Vision of Scot-Irish Values
Review: Of all the books I've read, James Webb's Born Fighting provides the most striking picture of what it's like to live in a Scots-Irish family, and see the the world through Scots-Irish eyes. My own ancestors came from Ulster in the mid-1800s, settling ultimately in southern Ontario and upstate New York. The fierce sense of right and wrong, the loyalty to country, the occasional hell-raising and love of "lubrication," and the conviction to never, Never, NEVER give in if you think you're right ... I saw them all around me as a child. Now I know why. As a former career military officer (RCAF) during the Cold War, I found Mr. Webb's description of his father's life and dedication on the mark, and particularly moving.

Leave it to others to write the dry histories, and wrap their tales in philosophical BS. If you want to understand the culture of the Scots-Irish, this book is the place to start. And the place where you'll grasp the spirit and the guts of the people who came across the Atlantic and made their mark in the New World. Thanks very much, Mr. Webb.


Rating:
Summary: Finally, an Accurate Account of the South and Southerners
Review: This is a book that has long needed to be written. Among other things, it gives a true and accurate socio-economic account of the South and Southerners. As a Southerner it speaks for me and, I'm sure, millions of my fellow Southerners. It is also something of a literary tour de force. Almost incidentally, the author has managed in this single volume to document and say essentially what needs to be said to "correct the record" regarding the South. Born Fighting should be read by Southerners for catharsis; by others, for the unvarnished truth about the South and Southerners - including Scots-Irish Southerners.

Rating:
Summary: Indispensable Book to Understanding American Culture
Review: This is an excellent book, one of those rare historical books you don't want to put down. The author uses the lively writing style of his highly acclaimed novels to develop a historical theme: the history of the Scots-Irish as they migrated from Scotland to Ireland to the U.S, from ancient Roman times to the present. While professional historians may quibble about a few points (I'm not a historian but I constantly read history), Mr. Webb has done his homework and got the big picture of the Scots-Irish story right. The theme is that the Scots-Irish are and have since the 18th Century been a major formative player in U.S. history and culture. Their cultural stress on personal independence has prevented their organizing as an interest group to emphasize their role, thus their story is not widely known and their influence on contemporary culture and politics largely overlooked. Mr. Webb enlivens the general story of the Scots-Irish by telling stories of his ancestors going back for generations, and of his own memories of growing up. I found the book especially interesting because to me it is the history of my own cousins: as an Irish Catholic American I see many similarities to my own ancestral traditions and culture. While our religion and immigration patterns were different, there are many similarities of temperament, historical experience with the British and early American British culture, and cultural tendencies such as a martial spirit. The Irish as well as the Scots-Irish were born fighting, and I imagine a geneticist would find the two groups' blood lines virtually indistinguishable. I enjoyed reading the fact that one of the main groups that formed the Scots were the Scotti, who migrated from Ireland. (I teased my wife that I would call this review "How the Irish invented the Scots," a spinoff on another book on the completely disproportional contribution of the Scots to the modern world.) This book is indispensable to understanding American culture and politics. Scots-Irish cultural influence permeates American society, but in a subterranean way that few recognize and politicians ignore at their peril. Such an important theme, combined with such a lively and personal style, make Born Fighting a must read.