"Born Fighting"

I finally finished "Born Fighting" by James Webb -- an excellent primer for anyone who wants to know more about the "Southern" mentality. The book centers on the Scots-Irish (often called "The Thirteenth Tribe" after the nomadic "Lost Tribe of Israel"*) who came to the United States and have left a lasting imprint on its culture and politics.

For more on the Scots-Irish, visit here. For James' Webb Wall Street Journal column (a very abbreviated version of his book), visit here. (Registration may be required.)

The Scots-Irish Quote of the Day ...

"I love Highlanders, and I love Lowlanders, but when I come to that branch of our race that has been grafted on to the Ulster stem I take off my hat in veneration and awe" -- Lord Rosebery

Amen.

* In Vacation Bible School, we were taught that the Levites were the 13th Tribe of Israel, yet did not receive an allotment of the Promised Land. Hence the comparison with the Scots-Irish, who were not welcomed in the U.S. Northeast by the Anglos and the Puritans nor the aristocrats along the Southern coast because the new immigrants were "coarse farmers" who did not kiss the hem of the Establishment. (We still don't.) Instead, the Scots-Irish pushed into the rocky Appalachians and the Indian-dominated Ohio and Tennessee valleys, neither considered choice lands at the time.