A Book about the Scots-Irish

Born Fighting  How the Scots-Irish Shaped America  by James Webb

Five groups immigrated to and made up the population of colonial North America prior to the 1830-40s.  They were the Puritans in New England, the Quakers in the Mid-Atlantic states and the Anglicans in the South.  African slaves were a fourth group that came to the colonies though they were not immigrants of their own free will.  The fifth group was the Scots-Irish who pushed west past the established towns and villages of colonial America and settled its then-frontier areas of western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia.  This book is about them.  (The American Indians were considered indigenous at the time of colonization though they, too, had migrated from foreign lands.) 

This book is part history, part personal memoir, part cultural history and part political commentary.  Its author is a man of seemingly limitless talents and energy.  Who knows James Webb?  No, not James E. Webb of telescope fame.  No, not Jimmy Webb who wrote Wichita Lineman and, no, not Jimmy Webb, East Village punk fashion icon. This is James Webb---novelist, journalist, filmmaker, professor, decorated Marine, Vietnam War veteran, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, former Secretary of the Navy (both during the Reagan years), former senator from Virginia and one-time Democrat candidate in the 2016 Presidential primary.  That James Webb! That James Webb, as you might guess, is himself a Scots-Irish.  He is justifiably proud of his roots and he writes with a zeal and passion fitting of a fightin’ Marine.  

Mr. Webb gives the reader several solid chapters on the provenance and history of the Scots-Irish going back to the indigenous Celtic tribes of Europe.  He then takes us from William Wallace (aka Braveheart) to Robert the Bruce to the monarchs of the 15^th and 16^th centuries and then the migrations of the Scots-Irish to the New World and their role in America’s history up to the present.  Other chapters deal with the legacy of the Scots-Irish in the United States, a legacy which pervades our military, our fighting spirit, our sense of individualism, our country music, our Protestant religions and our form of governance.  Among his many celebrations of his countrymen, Webb writes quite a paen to Andrew Jackson as representative of the Scots-Irish ethos.  

A portion of the book is devoted to Webb’s family history, his personal reflections and experiences moving through the post-Vietnam American culture.  His analysis of race relations and the scape-goat role that was unfairly foisted on Southern whites is particularly insightful.  His family memories veer slightly to the sentimental at times, but they save themselves by Webb’s level of detail and thoughtfulness that renders them genuinely from the heart.  

I ended up enjoying this book.  My original intent was to skim it and concentrate on the history chapters.  However, with no Scots-Irish heritage whatsoever, I could relate to much of the cultural history that Webb so accurately described.  The historical chapters, though a bit jumbly at times, were thorough and informative.  The book has no pictures except for the collage on the book jacket.  Hardly enough!  Photos of Mr. Webb wearing all his various hats would have added another dimension to the text as would have photos of the family members he described.  Generic photos of people and places discussed would have been helpful as well. 

I recommend this book and look forward to reading more of James Webb’s work.  Perhaps this Scots-Irishman extraordinaire will step onto the public stage once more in one of the many areas in which he excels.