In his first work of nonfiction, bestselling novelist James Webb
tells the epic story of the Scots-Irish, a people whose lives and
worldview were dictated by resistance, conflict, and struggle, and
who, in turn, profoundly influenced the social, political, and
cultural landscape of America from its beginnings through the
present day.
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 the eighteenth century, traveling in groups of families
and bringing with them not only long experience 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 it has 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 northof 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
forgranted.
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