The book on the cultural and ecological shaping of southern highlands
(Appalachia and the Ozark Plateau) is by two cultural geographers:  Terry G.
Joran & Matti Kaups, The American Backwoods Frontier:  An Ethnic and
Ecological Interpretation (Johns Hopkins U. P., 1989)  In this brilliant
study, the authors undermine McWhinney's "Celtic" thesis for the South, by
arguing that the forest penetration technology used to settle highlands in
North America, derived from Finnish settlers in New Sweden (Delaware) and
were then transferred to a series of ethnicities who came after, including
the Scots-Irish, but also the English, Dutch, German, Huguenot, and American
Indians who were acculturated into this particularly effective form of high
forest penetration.  For these scholars, the log cabin was more important
than the Celtic screaming attack.

Harold S. Forsythe
Golieb Fellow
New York University, School of Law
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Hershman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: BACK TO PLECKER


>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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>>
>
>
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