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 >> >>To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the >>instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html >> >> >> >> > > >To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the >instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html > >To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions >at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html