I haven't read Webb's book, just a review of it. But I think there has
been tendency amony some writers to idealize, and overstate, the
Scots-Irish heritage. Grady McWhiney comes to mind in his work on the
Civil War. I think the culture and population of the mountains was much
more a fusion of different European, Native American, and African
American elements.But that brings us back to the topic we started on.
Jim Hershman
Gregg Kimball wrote:
>Here are a few other things that might put things in a larger Virginia
>perspective:
>
>Gregory Michael Dorr, "Assuring America's Place in the Sun: Ivey Foreman
>Lewis and the Teaching of Eugenics at the University of Virginia,
>1915-1953" Journal of Southern History, vol. LXVI, no. 2 (May 2000).
>
>Dorr's dissertation: "Segregation's Science: the American Eugenics
>Movement and Virginia, 1900-1980," University of Virginia, 2000.
>
>Richmond composer and pianist John Powell was a major player in the
>movement and a large collection of his papers are at UVA. He was
>involved with the Anglo-Saxon Club of America. The following book has
>good information on how Powell's racial beliefs were manifest in his
>co-management of the White Top Folk Festival:
>
>Whisnant, David E. All that is native & fine: the Politics of Culture
>in an American Region. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
>1983.
>
>Powell was trying to recover a presumed "pure Anglo-Saxon" culture of
>the mountains through music. This was a widespread idea among song
>collectors of the time, but Powell took it to the extreme.
>
>I wonder what folks on the list think about books like Webb's "Born
>Fighting" that look at the Scots-Irish and Celtic traditions in America.
>I don't want to provoke a Donnybrook, but it seems to me that many such
>works fall back on idealized notions of Southern Appalachian people as a
>race that are a bit too familiar to the historian. (I'm particularly
>sensitive to the notion of the "Celtic-Southerner," mainly because I
>have a bunch of ancestors who were Scots-Irish--in New Hampshire!)
>
>Gregg Kimball
>
>Gregg D. Kimball, Director
>Publications and Educational Services
>804/692-3722
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of James Hershman
>Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 7:29 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: BACK TO PLECKER
>
>Estabrook's "study" on a community in Amherst County is certainly a
>clear example of the application of white supremacist and eugenic ideas
>to anthropological study. I think, even at the time it was published, it
>drew some early criticism from other scholars in the field who were
>coming to question those assumptions. Dr. Plecker was certainly not
>alone in his views--he was just the most prominent official agent
>carrying them out. White supremacy and eugenics were part of Virginia
>Law and social policy. See a new work, which has a large chapter on
>Virginia, on the subject: Edwin Black, War Against the Weak: Eugenics
>and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race.
>
>Jim Hershman
>[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>
>
>>The book was at the Swem Library at the Collge of W & M in
>>Williamsburg, 10 years ago when I read it all in one afternoon. Much
>>more revealing of the people that wrote it then the folks they appeared
>>
>>
>to be discussing. It does point
>
>
>>to my earlier posting that Plecker was not alone. I have no idea
>>
>>
>whether or
>
>
>>not it is available on interlibrary loan.
>>
>>Selma Stewart
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>
>
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