The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story

Book Description

History has long maintained that the Anglo-Saxon overtaking of the Iron Age Celts was the origin of the British people. Celtic Britain reconstructs the peopling of Britain — through a study of genetics, climatology, archaeology, language, culture, and history — and overturns that myth and others. The Anglo-Saxons, who supposedly conquered the Celts, contributed only five to ten percent of the British gene pool. The “Atlantic Celts,” long believed to have migrated to Britain from Central Europe around 300 BC during the Iron Age, can be linked genetically to the people of Basque country. And linguistic evidence suggests that, besides Celtic languages, a Germanic-type language similar to Norse was also spoken in Britain long before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons.

In this groundbreaking study, Stephen Oppenheimer explaines the surprising roots of the present-day cultural identities of the English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh.

Customer Reviews:

Great Britain as New Euskaria.......2007-09-23

An excellent book, like being back in college and taking a fun course with a witty, funny and knowledgeable professor. I appreciated the linear format with thesis backed with evidence approach. As a precaution, just like college, there were many terms and ideas that went over my head, which meant having to do some additional homework to catch up with text, but well worth the detour. To this regard, the appendix and glossary were extremely valuable. I have always been fascinated with the origins of the Basque; why would they be the only non Indo-European, Sub-Saharan or Semitic language in all of Europe and the Mediterranean and why stuck in the middle of Pyrenees? My other linguistic quandry was the lack of celtic words in the English language and the lack of consistency between English and Dutch/German/Danish. Finally the technology catches up with speculative history and paints a different picture of Western Europe. It is human nature to embelish, pander to the audience or just plain preach propaganda. But blood doesn't lie and for me all the pieces of the puzzle came together in Mr. Oppenheimer's book. I have no doubt the thesis will be seminal in the re-writing of British History.

Difficult, but intermittently rewarding.......2007-08-07

Not the place to begin, but this book may reward advanced readers who can handle a popularized but scholarly work on the implications of recent findings in DNA. Earlier readers posting here frequently disparage this book's ponderous prose and its massive array of recondite DNA analyses. After reading more accessible, and considerably shorter (no coincidence!) works on genetics and anthropology by Spencer Wells and Bryan Sykes (for both authors, their two most recent books reviewed by me on Amazon), I felt ready to tackle Oppenheimer's work, despite its difficulty. While the time invested paid off in a better knowledge of the Celtic and British origin debate and the possible influence of Germanic cultural and linguistic influences preceding not only the Anglo-Saxon invasion but the preceding Roman occupation, Oppenheimer while he may be a better scholar than Sykes remains a less entertaining writer. Sykes can popularize his findings in "Blood of the Isles" & "Seven Daughters of Eve." He also can profit from them if you note the enterprise Oxford Genetics. As I commented when reviewing Sykes' "Blood," it remains curious that two geneticists both at Oxford do not even mention the other colleague in hundreds of pages of closely documented and meticulously referenced texts.

This apparent rivalry aside, Oppenheimer acknowledges very late in his text that names given to Rostov or Ian or Helena are merely "aides memoires" for R1B-11 or the like in an alphabet soup of markers all geneticists rely upon. Readers of both Sykes & Oppenheimer sniff disdainfully at this popularization, but surely both scientists and lay people need assistance in imagining "Eve" or "Lucy" or the "Ice Man" to make more personal the findings buried in blood types or bone samples. Oppenheimer carefully explains his reasons for clarifying relationships among these difficult classifications, numbering in the thousands by now. Much explanatory material on genetics here is relegated to appendices and a glossary; while Sykes & Wells integrate more definitions and analogies into their briefer, more readable books, Oppenheimer opts for density.

This can bore a reader. My eyes glazed over in the second hundred pages full of dull genetics. The first hundred, tackling the Celtic origins debate and guardedly based on scholars such as Simon James & Barry Cunliffe, and Iron Age archaeologists such as John Collis, argues a southerly direction into the British Isles for Celtic infusion, not the La Tene Danube-Central European homeland and its overland route for entry into the Isles. Personally, I'd have liked to have Bob Quinn's book "The Atlantean Irish" (reviewed by me) credited for its prescience regarding the Atlantic Celt "fringe" movement that Cunliffe and others have since fought to replace the Continental migration theories of the 19c. This vexed matter alone, building upon the past two decades of Celtic revision, or Celto-skepticism, could fill an entire book easily.

But, I did perk up eventually. This is more a reference book on a variety of unevenly covered but admittedly provocative topics. He writes clearly in places and dully in many others, depending it seems on his diligence vs. his enthusiasm! This is an arduous trek, but you need to weather this if your curiosity's aroused about this intellectual terrain that for the first time geneticists and linguists have entered to do battle over, not to mention archeologists and historians!

Advances in DNA may soon rely on its suggestions, or they may overturn its assumptions. But, Oppenheimer bravely piles all he has amassed for the benefit of science. It may be too clunky and over-ambitious, but he has done specialized researchers, armchair genealogists, and academics like myself needing a non-technical explanation of dozens of arcane debates all a service.

Oppenheimer builds on this fact-laden if recondite foundation to posit that many of today's ancestors came to the Isles perhaps as early as around 15-7,500 years ago. The land bridge before the end of the last Ice Age became submerged allowed two major inflows of migration, from a Ukrainian-Moldavian refuge, and an Iberian refuge. The former provided a basis for North Sea movements added to later by Scandinavians, Saxons, Belgae, and other Continental peoples. The latter brought people in on the Irish, Welsh, and Scottish sides closest to the Irish Sea that opened up in the later periods of global warming. Germanic languages cannot have diverged in Old English so rapidly after the Saxon incursions, nor were (against the Welsh historian Gildas' spurious claims of Celtic "wipeout") the indigenous natives necessarily Celtic-speakers all prior to the landing of Hengist and his post-Roman mercenaries.

Percentages of genetic disruption rarely reach even the point of "decimation" of 10% in a handful of Anglian areas, according to genetic studies of inhabitants today in these long-stable regions of Britain. Simply and ineradicably, this persistent divide, genetically and perhaps linguistically, Oppenheimer proposes, persists in our DNA. This parallels the Germanic vs. Celtic division of languages in the Isles, the spine of mountains serving as an insular border between these two major routes for farming and colonization.

The hoary myth of a Celtic genocide by Teutonic overlords that inspired Arthur's last stand, it seems, proves more a "Dark Age" screed than plausible history. Granted that this early medieval era remains fraught with dangers for those reliant only on chronicles or a misleading archeological record, Oppenheimer here makes his boldest suggestion.

Probably the first to enter this fray as a geneticist, he confronts linguistic assumptions about the rapid spread and dialectal evolution in only a few centuries of Anglo-Saxon in post-Roman Britain. Germanic languages, he opines, might have become established long before Romans, let alone Saxons, entered into what was not necessarily a Celtic-dominated Brittania. Celts themselves, whatever this term means given the looseness of this pseudo-ethnic linguistic concept, did not rush en masse into the islands, and they too were perhaps the harbingers of not a massive demographic invasion but an elite influencing cultural and linguistic trends among the natives, who may date back ten thousand years before the arrival of Celtic-language speakers. Unfortunately, traces of any words that are pre-Celtic lurk rarely in the archaeological record, according to most experts. We lack a Rosetta Stone to decode whatever insular peoples spoke before Celtic languages became the norm among both the newcoming elite and the long-settled old-timers.

Therefore, Oppenheimer turns to DNA for clues. He challenges linguists who for a century have been indoctrinated to ignore searching for language origins. He argues that science can offer tentative solutions that account for a Germanic undercurrent that may not be that apparent on the surface, but which aligns with what we know about rates of linguistic change that may have begun as long ago as 3000 BCE (estimates differ) that can be calibrated with patterns of genetic migration.

His thesis? Most of the original British Isles inhabitants descend from a massive "founder population"-- maybe far more than three-fourths or more of those today living in some locales. Due to genetics and settlement patterns, most humans stick to one place for millennia. This conservatism therefore provides a solid bedrock. It cannot be eroded even by the waves of more recent, and tribally-named, intruders. While closer to us in time and in the historical record (however tenuous!), these famous warriors themselves often number in the low single-digits (5% often!) in terms of percentages of genetic "material" we British and/or Celts carry today.

All subsequent immigrations, whether Celt, Roman, Saxon, Angle, Jute, Viking, or Norman, Oppenheimer states in the closing line of his epilogue, diminish by their traces in the descendants of the majority who trace their roots to British-resident or Celtic-origin DNA today. Most of the origins of the British predate even the Celts. Oppenheimer concludes: "we are all minorities compared with the first, unnamed pioneers, who ventured into the empty, chilly lands so recently vacated by the great ice sheets." (421)

The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story.......2007-08-02

Oppenheimer has written the most comprehensive, well organized and complete description of the deep origins of the British peoples. At the present time it is easily the best of any other available title. The author is at the very edge of contemporary genetic studies. One of the book's strengths is its inclusion of many of the findings of other genetic researchers. It also contains supporting materials from other disciplines and classical writers.

I found the book to be well written, meticulously documented, illustrated with maps and other visual materials, and well organized for a work of its breath. It is written for the educated or self-educated reader and does presuppose some familiarity with basic genetics and dna structure. If a potential reader fears he/she does not have this background, I recommend purchasing a companion primer on dna or download materials from even Wikipedia. Most genealogists will have little trouble with the technical terms.

I have read critiques that this book gives no final answers. This is true but the author provides the best interpretation of British prehistory available from today's science and supporting disciplines. A good companion book to read with this book is Barry Cunliffe's Facing the Ocean: the Atlantic and Its Peoples.

Accessible, yet not dumbed down.......2007-07-28

For anyone interested in the early history of the British isles this book is a must. Oppenheimer gathered all the information concerning the genetic history of the British isles floating around on the internet, scholarly journals, academic works, etc., and having assembled it all, presents it a serious, yet very readable fashion. Like Sykes and other genetic scholars he used cutsy names to represent specific genetic lineages, but he doesn't force the reader to have to deal with a fictional account of prehistoric lives. Instead the names are easily remembered catch phrases for the aforementioned groups.
Sykes confirmed earlier arguments about ancient regional divisions between populations in the British isles, but rather than beat the Anglo vs. Celtic drum, he argues that the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh all came out of the same prehistoric mix of Iberian, Near Eastern, and Eastern European migrants. Sykes does not, however, argue against the validity of "Celtic" as an lable representing certain populations in Western Europe. Rather, we need to rethink the way in which we use the term.
Using a rational - if not 100% believable argument - based on linguistics, history, genetics and archaeology, Sykes also contends that the roots of the English language in what is now Eastern England might predate the Roman invasion. In other words the linguistic division between the Welsh and the English is not the result of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, instead owing to more long-standing prehistoric social and cultural divisions.

Great Analysis.......2007-05-14

This book is incredibly insightful on a topic that few people know about. It accurately and convincingly dispels many rumors and genealogical cover-ups and gets right down to what is factual. That, in my opinion, is what is most important about a book that presents many important concepts in a objective manner. Forget about the fact that he happens to use "pet names," and that he can drone on a little. His contemporary Bryan Sykes, who wrote a book on exactly the same topic, does the exact same thing and comes to the same basic conclusions. In any case, the meat of the books, the facts, haven't been disputed as of yet.

Making Your Move to One of America's Best Small Towns: How to Find a Great Little Place as Your Next Home Base

Average customer rating:

A Poor Offering
Make that 3 1/2 stars
Part of the story
A good guide to start

Making Your Move to One of America's Best Small Towns: How to Find a Great Little Place as Your Next Home Base
Norman Crampton
Manufacturer: M. Evans and Company, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0871319888

Book Description

For those looking to raise a family in a storybook American town, or a change of pace from hectic city life, this book is the answer.

Customer Reviews:

A Poor Offering.......2007-08-10

This is not a very good book. 50% of the book is devoted to Mr. Crampton's less than interesting observations of life in a small town. His advice is mostly extremely basic common sense stuff that any normal person should already know. He offers very few interesting insights.

The other half of the book is his list of the 120 best small towns in America. This part of the book is even more weak. It's obvious Mr. Crampton did a lot of internet travel to gather his data as the descriptions are clearly culled from the towns' chamber of commerce websites. He offers zero insight or information gained from him (or someone else) actually visiting / living in the towns and conveying what the towns are actually like.

His ruse is painfully evident as the "more info" listing for each town is merely a link to their respective chamber of commerce website! What "more info" could there be given that the author merely copied the site? Even his internet research was exceptionally lazy.

The book should be titled "A Compilation of America's Best Small Towns' Chamber of Commerce Website Info plus Non-insightful Musings of the Armchair Travelling Author."

And how do the towns qualify as being best? By Mr. Crampton's estimation they must have a highschool, and a hospital, and at least a few other businesses that aren't Walmart. Could the bar be set any lower? With that criteria one could throw 120 darts blindfolded at a map and do just as well as this book.

The book could be fodder for a Garrison Keilor Ketchup skit, "you know June, why don't we retire to the country, find a town with a highschool and live out our days..... Dear, have you been getting enough Ketchup lately..."

A very weak text that I'll be returning to Amazon post haste!

Make that 3 1/2 stars.......2005-03-28

Actually, I would have given "Making Your Move" 4 stars had I found the descriptions of the individual towns more interesting. But, what I did find was a witty style of writing, some laugh-out-loud moments, and some very down-to-earth advice on the pearls and perils of small-town life. One might apply Norm's smart and insightful guidelines to just about any sparsely populated area in the quest for new habitation. So even though his selections failed to fire me up, they did make me realize that I may not be cut out for small-town living after all. And that, in itself, is worth far more than the price of a book. Thanks, Norm, and make that four stars.

Part of the story.......2003-03-12

This book is a good place to start if you're thinking of moving to a town of 15,000 or less. It will point you to many interesting communities. However, having used his previous book to guide my last move, and as a resident of one of the towns highlighted in this book (Grinnell), I can honestly say that data only carries you so far. Crampton could provide readers with a great benefit by lengthening the amount of description and flavor for each town. In particular, one key element missing is the 'dynamic' of a town: is it progressive? conservative? excited about education? quick to vote down taxes and bonds? These elements form the 'culture' of a small town, and believe me, the culture of a small town will be *very* important to you!

A good guide to start.......2003-01-08

As a resident of one of the 120 "best small towns" recommended by Norman Crampton, I was delighted to see Silver City on the list.

While Crampton's book is a good place to start your search for small town living, it is important to realize that each small town offers a unique personality. Some generalizations simply do not apply to Silver City. For example, it is not necessary to join a church (or country club) in order to fit in here. Even a small community like ours has diverse sub-populations: recent retirees, most of whom have some affinity for the arts; old-timers, most of whom are the conservative church-goers Crampton describes; and Hispanic families, many of whom have worked in the mines.

These groups rarely interact, although we usually get along very peacefully. We also have a number of folks who teach at the university -- and we rarely see them around town.

To learn about Silver city, you won't get much information from the Chamber of Commerce or the editor of the newspaper. You'd do better to spend some time hanging out at the AIR cafe, talking to whoever comes in. The morning and afternoon groups are quite different and everyone is friendly.

The author gives some nuts and bolts about each small town. Unfortunately, with the exception of weather, much of this information will change by the time the book is printed. And your decision may well be made by factors that can't be added up.

Book Description

Around the time of WWI, large numbers of African Americans began leaving their homes in the rural South in search of employment in the industrial cities of the North. In 1940, Lawrence chronicled their journey of hope in a flowing narrative sequence of paintings."This stirring picture book brings together the sixty panels of Lawrence's epic narrative Migration series, which he created in 1940-1941. They tell of the journey of African-Americans who left their homes in the South around World War I and traveled in search of better lives in the northern industrial cities. Lawrence is a storyteller with words as well as pictures: his captions and introduction to this book are the best commentary on his work. A poem at the end by Walter Dean Myers also reveals [as do the paintings] the universal in the particulars." --BL.

Notable Children's Books of 1994 (ALA)
1993 Books for Youth Editors' Choices (BL)
1994 Teachers' Choices (IRA)
Notable 1994 Childrens' Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC)
1994 Carter G. Woodson Outstanding Merit Book (NCSS)
1994 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)

Customer Reviews:

Art-lovers for life.......2002-10-02

Parents hoping to introduce their children to modern American art could do worse than to buy this edition reproducing 60 paintings by Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), one of the finest African American artists in U.S. history.

First published for children in a 1993 limited edition, with a poem by Walter Dean Myers, this volume reproduces the Great Migration series that Lawrence created in 1940 and 1941 to tell the story of the African American migration north, from the plantations and cotton fields of the antebellum era.

Begun within a year after Lawrence completed a magnificent Harriet Tubman series, these tempura colored, poster paint works made Jacob Lawrence's career. It's easy to see why. Bold and unforgiving, these vibrant works grew from Lawrence's own childhood migration--from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Easton, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia and finally, at 13, to Harlem--his exposure to African-American culture and his intensive training in the Utopia Children's House and New Deal-sponsored Harlem Art Workshop of the 1930s.

At that time, the WPA was still funding public art murals, but Lawrence was too young to gain a commission. Instead, he determined to show the African-American struggle for freedom in real-life stories that would tie the past to the present.

From 1938 to 1941, he used the New York public library for research, creating in swift succession five series of paintings telling the stories of Toussaint L'Ouverture, Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and The Migration of the Negro.

In the last of these, Lawrence hoped to speak artistically of a mass escape from the rural, discriminatory and unjust South--a region of poverty and illiteracy--into an anxious era of hope and expectation in the North. The paintings depicted passage, with railways, train cars, suitcases, and hordes of people constantly in motion. Their visages and body language spoke in terms of expectation and fear. Lawrence wove bold colors and themes throughout the series, thereby joining the paintings into a unit.

In a documentary shown in a museum tour of Lawrence's work, the artist said he "didn't think in terms of history in that series. ...It was like I was doing a portrait of something." Portraits were "a portrait of myself, a portrait of my family, a portrait of my peers."

Lawrence's extraordinary talent was recognized when he was only 24, with the 1941 exhibition of these paintings in the downtown gallery of art dealer Edith Halpert, who had beforehand exclusively shown the work of white artists. So breathtaking were the paintings (as they remain), they instantly transported Lawrence across the U.S. racial divide of that era, making him deservedly famous. The Philips Gallery in Washington D.C. purchased the odd-numbered paintings; the Museum of Modern Art in New York took the even ones.

Treat your kids to this triumph of the human spirit, and to the fine accompanying Myers poem. These paintings make children into art-lovers, for life. Alyssa A. Lappen

A pleasure to read and a pleasure to see........2000-06-13

I checked this book out from the library over a year ago and knew from the illustration that Jacob Lawrence was a special person. I was drawn to the illustration because it is soothing. His illustration style is flat, yet there is a world of depth. It is the kind of art that I could have on my wall and never tire of. I remember more the art than the story. The art told a story. This book is as much for adults as it is for children. Since hearing that Jacob Lawrence died...I instantly felt the need to get one of his books for my home library.

The great migration begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633

Average customer rating:

Excellent genealogy resource for New England.

The great migration begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633
Robert Charles Anderson
Manufacturer: New England Historic Genealogical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 088082042X

Customer Reviews:

Excellent genealogy resource for New England........1999-08-07

The author, sponsored by NEHGS, has written a comprehensive 3 volumne genealogical document of everyone known to have lived in New England between 1620-1633. This book brings many well know sources together for a researcher. Its a 'must have' for anyone with roots in New England!

Atlas of Bird Migration: Tracing the Great Journeys of the World's Birds

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Great Book, very interesting to find out more about birds....
How to accept a changing season and move on to warmer places

Atlas of Bird Migration: Tracing the Great Journeys of the World's Birds

Manufacturer: Firefly Books
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1554072484

Book Description

A comprehensive and authoritative guide to the fascinating mysteries of bird migration.

Every year, billions of birds leave their North American breeding grounds for winter quarters farther south. That so many birds migrate so many miles, through life-threatening conditions, and to the same place each year, is simply stunning.

The editor of this important and lavishly illustrated new book has selected a cross-section of both the most typical and the most interesting migrants. Colorful maps, photographs, calendars and fact files, with easy-to-read symbols and abbreviations, present an accurate and up-to-date profile of each species.

The introduction provides comprehensive background on migration and its great mystery: how do the birds know where to go? The latest scientific discoveries are explained here.

The bulk of the book is the directory, which chronicles the routes of more than 500 species, including:

North American birds of prey
Hummingbirds, grosbeaks and starlings
Eurasian shorebirds, storks and cranes
Winter visitors from the Far North, such as swans, geese and finches
African, South American and Australasian migrants
Migratory sea birds, such as penguins, albatrosses and terns.

The results of new satellite tracking methods are covered, as are current environmental threats and conservation initiatives. The book closes with a comprehensive catalog of migrating species from all continents.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book, very interesting to find out more about birds...........2007-05-14

Very good graphs, illustrations and explanations about bird migration. Worth the money.

How to accept a changing season and move on to warmer places.......2007-04-28

Very good book that explains how iceages on earth aids the evolution of birds, how birds follow SUN in daytime, Stars in the night time, if it is cloudy and are flying on Sea how they can use earth magnetic field to find thier way. This book explains where birds breed in the spring-summer times and migrate to warmer places in fall-winter. As the morning SUN warms up the ground, the air heats up. The birds use this rising hot air help them in soaring to new heights.

This book engineers bird migration, explains how migration evolved, how birds decide the time of travel, how they use the natural phenomina like thermal soaring, how the wing shape and size are related to its flight - like sea birds have long, thin wings, geese have heavy wings etc.

Then this book talks about specifics like how swans migrate, Geese migrate, Albatross migrate and you can find specifics about sea, land, north american, eurasian birds.

Average customer rating:

An interesting, if prejudiced, look at the Ulster Scots
The birth and assimilation of a people
Scottish people don't refer to themselves as "Scotch"
"For They Desired a Better Country"-Hebrews 11:16
Thoroughly Documented & Well Written

The Scotch-Irish: A Social History
James G. Leyburn
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807842591

Book Description

Dispelling much of what he terms the 'mythology' of the Scotch-Irish, James Leyburn provides an absorbing account of their heritage. He discusses their life in Scotland, when the essentials of their character and culture were shaped; their removal to Northern Ireland and the action of their residence in that region upon their outlook on life; and their successive migrations to America, where they settled especially in the back-country of Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, and then after the Revolutionary War were in the van of pioneers to the west.

Customer Reviews:

An interesting, if prejudiced, look at the Ulster Scots.......2007-04-08

Prof. Leyburn obviously did some study on his subject, and it shows in this book. He is able to recount in fair detail the history of "the Scotch Irish", but it is plain how little he thought of them. It seems that his underlying goal is to correct the "overpraise" the Ulster Scots have received from some quarters. His descriptions of the Scots could have been penned by the most bigoted English historian. Leyburn has used such disparaging accounts of the Scots in their homeland that one would be lead to believe that Cro-Magnons could teach them some things about hygiene and manners, but due to the lack of Cro-Magnons, God gave the Scots the English to help them.

His contention that the Ulster Scots did not remain Ulster Scots but became "Americans" is not wholly true. While those states with a large number of people with Scots ancestry have always been among the first to defend this country and stand up to the rest of the world as Americans, they have also been very rooted in the history of their people and their family. I grew up in the South in an area of heavy Scots/Ulster Scots ancestry, where the current use of words from Scotland and Ulster continues by the elder generation. The people there have all been born in America, but they are quicker to point out that they are "Scotch Irish" than they are to say American. They raised their children to be the same way. The United States may be the place of birth, but the blood is Scots.

The birth and assimilation of a people.......2005-09-27

Book contents: foreword - 2pp, table of contents - 4 pp, text -344pp (including 5 maps), timeline of Scotland - 3pp, notes -16pp, bibliography - 19pp, and index - 5 pp.

Overall the book was very good, particularly for someone like myself who wasn't certain his roots were Scotch or Scotch Irish. It was well researched.

The maps of America were not particularly helpful. It was not immediately clear how they fit into the colonies as a whole, and it was sometimes difficult to picture migration patterns. There were no arrows on the maps or other indications of patterned settlement or movement to complete the text descriptions.

The timeline was helpful, but it was only of Scotland up to 1690. A timeline for the Scotch Irish from 1610 forward would have been more germane.

The book first covers Scottish culture prior to the migration of Lowland Scots to Northern Ireland. Then in 1610 King James of England opened Northern Ireland, aka Ulster, to both English and Scottish settlers at the expense of the native Irish. This act set the stage for the current strife and political separation of Northern Ireland.

Through four generations, the Scottish settlers in Northern Ireland became culturally separated from the Scotland of their origin. Then many of them immigrated to America in five great waves between 1717 and 1775, entering colonial America primarily through Pennsylvania and migrating south through the Virginia valley. Initially, these people were commonly referred to as Irish. The term "Scotch Irish" was later invoked to distinguish them from the Irish immigrating to America from the southern part of Ireland.

The lives and contributions of the Scotch Irish in America are described. Separate identity of the Scotch Irish essentially ends with the American Revolution, after which these people meld into the overall cultural fabric of the United States.

Scottish people don't refer to themselves as "Scotch".......2005-07-27

Scots, maybe, but usually just plain Scottish. Scotch is a common name for whisky. It amazes me how many people here tell me that they are "Scotch-Irish" - to me it makes them sound like an idiot.

"For They Desired a Better Country"-Hebrews 11:16.......2004-03-18

This is the first book I've read about the Scotch Irish and seems to be the accepted standard on the subject.

Professor Leyburn explains in his introduction that his book is "a social history of the Scotch-Irish. In this day of specialization, a social historian who undertakes to recount the life of people through three centuries and in three countries knowingly risks his scholarly head. Experts in Scottish, Irish, and American colonial history can only regard him as...ignorant of the finer points within their special fields. Scottish history is full of old controversies...Irish history has been so turbulent...few of its events is agreed upon." And Leyburn accomplishes this in only 330 pages. He divides his book into three parts:the Scot in 1600, the Scots in Ireland, the Scotch-Irish in America.

Being a southerner with Scotch-Irish roots in Tennessee, I was upset early on when Leyburn stated that Teddy Roosevelt's and others' claims that the Scotch-Irish were hardy, honorable folk was overblown. (Teddy's mother, Eleanor's grandmother, was a native Georgian, hardened, undoubtedly, by the Civil War's trials, Sherman's fiery footprints, amongst other things). Some of the trials of the Ulster scots in war and life and the deprivations they had to endure reminded me of the 40 day siege of Vicksburg, MS and the resiliency demonstrated by its citizens during the civil war. However, later on in the book, Leyburn's careful reasoning convinced me that he was more realistic. What stirred my thinking was Leyburn's comments in Chapter 16 when he states "political opinion and activity among the Scotch-Irish varied enormously from place to place. The whole mythology concerning this people rests upon a false assumption:that all Scotch-Irish thought alike. Why should they? They had come from different social classes back home; they entered America during six decades of remarkable fluctuation in ideas; they lived in colonies whose policies, attitudes, Indian problems, and progress toward stable institutions diverged widely." One can validate that statement easily by simply surfing the web and looking at the politics of numerous U.S. presidents with Scotch-Irish roots and see the "divergence" Leyburn speaks of.

I do believe, however, that Teddy Roosevelt's assertion that some Ulster Scots, Scotch-Irish, did play a pivotal role in early American history has many proofs. In Pennsylvania, as Leyburn recounts, in 1764, Ulster Scots pushed for equal representation within the state which was dominated by the minority quaker population concentrated around Philadelphia. That issue was one which the Scot felt most keenly following the Union of the crowns in 1707 accomplished during Queen Anne's reign; in parliament, Scots nobles were unfairly outnumbered by their English counterparts, see Paterson's History of Ayrshire.

I do believe some of these simple, biblically literate peoples, did desire a better country, and considered it their God-given task to try to make it a reality. The Baptists in Virginia, James Madison's state, were a significant force behind the freedom of religion/separation of church and state movement; ONE I FIRMLY BELIEVE MUST BE MAINTAINED! Just look at the bloody history of Christian Great Britain 300 years before the Revolutionary War; events that brought persecuted immigrants to the U.S. in the first place. The stuff seminarians don't study!

If you are an American doing geneaological research on your Scotch-Irish roots this is the resource book to get. I must add, too, if you have French Huguenot roots, they might have resided in Northern Ireland, in Ulster, before coming to America. I thought Leyburn was mistaken when he referred to Alexander Hamilton as an Ulster Scot. I know for a fact (court records) that his Hamilton ancestors were Scots from Ayrshire on the western coast of Scotland. That portion of Ayr, however, is extremely close to Northern Ireland, just a hop, skip, and a jump away! Alexander Hamilton's mother was French Huguenot, possibly her ancestors left Ulster to settle in Nevis, West Indies. Leyburn's statement is therefore correct again. Chapters 12 and 13 cover the conditions prompting immigration and the actual areas of settlement in colonial America of Scotch-Irish. Many people have been researching my Hamilton ancestors for years and can't get past 1780. Many of Leyburn's analyses are correct I believe.

A New Ireland by John Hume is on my books to read list about the 1998 Good Friday peace accord. Another book highly recommended to me is The Triumph of the Laity: Scots-Irish Piety and the Great Awakening, 1625-1760 by Marilyn J. Westerkamp. Hopefully, that book will give me a better understanding of my ancestors' background.

I gave the 5 star rating because I believe the subject matter warrants further study and is relevant for today. Truly understanding Ulster's history, (I believe), the conflicts, the circumstances and the social make-up of Northern Ireland itself, at distinct times in its history, is essential to the peace process there.

Thoroughly Documented & Well Written.......2004-01-25

Professor Leyburn left a valuable legacy in this volume. A niche of American history is covered that sadly, frequently goes overlooked. The Scotch-Irish are a substantial part of the U.S. population. Thankfully Dr. Leyburn told some of the story and it wasn't lost. He tells us in the foreword, "Histories of Scotland rarely devote more than a paragraph to the departure of thousands of Lowland Scots to Ireland in the seventeenth century." It is significant to Americans because "they came, two hundred thousand strong, to the American colonies in the eighteenth century."

They enthusiastically supported the American Revolution (as in significantly caused it to happen) and thought of themselves as "Americans" rather than Scotch-Irish.

This book covers their migrations, their lifestyles, the dominant element of the Christian religion in their society. It is informative, and to me, inspirational.

The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America
Average customer rating:

Worthy but not about what the title says

Recommended by a conservative talk show host

Great read with valuable insights on US history

Terrific reading

outstanding book.

The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America
Nicholas Lemann
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679733477
Release Date: 1992-03-31

Book Description

A New York Times bestseller, the groundbreaking authoritative history of the migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North. A definitive book on American history, The Promised Land is also essential reading for educators and policymakers at both national and local levels.

Customer Reviews:

Worthy but not about what the title says.......2007-09-12

This is a well written interesting book presenting information vital to understanding contemporary America. At the same thime this is only indirectly a book about the Great Black Migration. Rather it is about policies at the federal level, especially the collage of programs called the "war on poverty" and how they relate to American society in the 1960s and 1970s with examples from several African Americans from the Clarksdale Mississippi area who migrated to Chicago, several of them returning to Clarksdale.

One of the most valuable parts of the book--and well-written-is the description of the changes that went on in the 1940s with mechanism of agriculture that led to the migration--cotton got picked and then weeded mechanically the army of cotton field hads who had been the most important segment of the African American population was no longer needed in the South. This is one of the best and most practical explanations of this, especially as he focuses on Clarksdale Mississippi and the surrounding area. He gives a good history of the evolution of the cotton crop in the area and the evolution of Black society, providing examples in the lives of several people.

To me this is quite useful because one of my chief focuses is the history of the Blues. Clarksdale --the big town near where Muddy Waters, Ike Turner, Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Son House, Charlie Batton, and so many other Blues singers came from--is central to the history of the Delta Blues. Knowing the social and economic conditions that existed there is quite useful for music scholars who can profit from this part of the book.

Lemann is pretty good in descripting the way the plantation system broke up families and how the immigration to Chicago impacted several different Clarksdale folk who travelled up to Chicago. He charts their stories getting into Chicago in the 1940s and early 1950s fairly well.

Once he does this, there is an abrupt shift. He tries to chart the various conflicts in the Kennedy and Johnson administration about dealing with the Black urban problems, the rebellions, and poverty, which is really an aside from discussing Black migration. In this regard as he used Clarksdale as an example, he uses Chicago where all of his people from Clarksdale have migrated. I would imagine that the intimate detail that he goes into regarding the inside debates on forming the poverty programs and the infighting between Johnson and Kennedy factions of the Democratic party over it and the way the Daley machine in Chicago related to all of this is of interest to many people. It was told in such a way that even though I am not interested in it, it was interesting though not absorbing.

He presents the end result of the programs is that they never did anything but create a larger base for the Black middle and upper middle class among administrators of these programs and other public functionary jobs. In the 1960s, many of us who fought for a perspective for Black people independent of the Republicans and Democrats pointed out that this was the actual purpose of the programs, not to end poverty, but to encorporate political activists who might otherwise be drawn into the struggle for the interests of Black people into the apparatus of the government and into the feeding ground to become part of the Democratic and Republican parties and corporate America.

Lemann is good at showing the failure of these programs and the hell they produced for Black working folk like the subjects of his story, but he rarely steps back and examines the larger question of the way society as a whole functions.

If American capitalist society persistently creates a large army of poor African Americans, now supplemented by millions of equally poor or poorer workers without papers with even less rights, is this not something reqired by the system. Is this not a damper of the attempts of all working people for better working conditions, better wages, better social programs in education, health, and the environment. Is this not a feeding ground for the racist ideas that nourish acceptance of this society. Is this not a way of stopping social solidarity among working folks.

Again, I expected an overall history of the migration covering the whole of the nation in the 20th Century. This is not that book, but an extremely readable book giving very good case studies of how the Southern cotton plantation system worked, how it ended, and a history of the war on poverty in the 1960s and early 1970s. In passing, he provides some stories of African Americans women and men who lived through this history.

Recommended by a conservative talk show host.......2007-02-09

Years ago, on the recommendation of a black conservative talk show host, I read this book. While I could understand how this man could read a corroboration of his own views into this book, the conclusions I drew were considerably more compassionate. This historical analysis does not propose solutions as much as illustrate and analyze the issues of ascendancy from slavery.

Great read with valuable insights on US history.......2006-11-02

As an historic account, The Promised Land contains many interesting personal anecdotes hung on the framework of a much broader social picture that make the book an engaging and informative read. Although the book covered many different characters, which made it hard to follow at times, each one had a valuable contribution to make to Lemann's work in portraying for his readers the society and factors that influenced migration amongst the black population in the middle of the 20th century. I think Lemann could be criticized for focusing too much on the political sparring during the chapter on Washington, which digresses from the book's topic of black migration and adds little relevant information. I also think that while Lemann's relating of the personal lives of black migrants has the advantage of being engaging, it has the disadvantage of perhaps being too personal. In other words, the experiences of the individuals he elects to interview and record may not accurately relate the average experience for a migrant. I think that to carry more weight, the stories must be compared to some sort of statistical data to show that they correlate to the norm. I felt the writing was eloquent yet easily readable. I gained a much greater understanding of two areas of history of the United States of which I had little prior knowledge: the life of African-Americans in the Civil Rights era and the domestic influences of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations in focusing on poverty amongst the black minority.

Terrific reading.......2006-06-28

For someone who has just visited the delta area of Mississippi and actually traversed some of the hollow grounds of the plantations all thru the Clarksdale area, this was accurate,enjoyable and fascinating reading.

outstanding book........2000-07-04

This was an excellent combination of conveying historical fact with painting the picture by telling the stories of several people and families who lived the history. A fascinating period in history and a great read.

Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World (Harvard Historical Studies)

Average customer rating:

Migration and early America
The making of the English Atlanic world
outstanding work of original research

Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World (Harvard Historical Studies)
Alison Games
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0674007026

Book Description

England's seventeenth-century colonial empire in North America and the Caribbean was created by migration. The quickening pace of this essential migration is captured in the London port register of 1635, the largest extant port register for any single year in the colonial period and unique in its record of migration to America and to the European continent. Alison Games analyzes the 7,500 people who traveled from London in that year, recreating individual careers, exploring colonial societies at a time of emerging viability, and delineating a world sustained and defined by migration.

The colonial travelers were bound for the major regions of English settlement--New England, the Chesapeake, the West Indies, and Bermuda--and included ministers, governors, soldiers, planters, merchants, and members of some major colonial dynasties--Winthrops, Saltonstalls, and Eliots. Many of these passengers were indentured servants. Games shows that however much they tried, the travelers from London were unable to recreate England in their overseas outposts. They dwelled in chaotic, precarious, and hybrid societies where New World exigencies overpowered the force of custom. Patterns of repeat and return migration cemented these inchoate colonial outposts into a larger Atlantic community. Together, the migrants' stories offer a new social history of the seventeenth century. For the origins and integration of the English Atlantic world, Games illustrates the primary importance of the first half of the seventeenth century.

Customer Reviews:

Migration and early America.......2007-05-26

A Ph.d. dissertation by Alison Games "that turned into a book," Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World introduces a novel approach to studying English Colonial history. Insisting that migration played a more significant role in early Atlantic regional and national settlements than previously thought, the author explores and amalgamates common threads to modify previous notions on the origins of English cultural norms in colonial America. Based heavily on the 1635 London Port register, the author chronicles the migration patterns of over 7500 Englishmen and women who moved to the New World.

After establishing a rather dense narrative in the introductory chapters, we learn, in depth, about the travel patterns and challenges of those who braved the Atlantic world. "A spectrum of experience," notes Games, "characterized early colonial settlements, and the intent of my approach is to delineate both the variety of colonial societies and the common processes by which they were formed." (10) The discussions of the aforementioned vignettes are dispersed successfully among several geographic regions such as New England, the Caribbean, and the Chesapeake.

The author provides extensive research of church registers, court records, and other primary sources to advance a careful argument that "common processes" of Old World travelers established the foundations of early American family life. She also correctly highlights the fact that movement between the New and Old World was hectic, and in constant motion, with migrants moving several times once they entered colonial America. The only exception to this argument, which Games downplays, is the large contingent of migrants who moved directly to New England from the Old World and settled there.

In a peripheral exploration, Games expounds on colonial Puritanism and discusses the rise of church membership in the New World. The former focuses on spiritual modifications, or simply changes, that distinguished colonial Puritans from Old World Puritans. These arguments, however, seem more suited, and appropriate, for a study of colonial religious practices and developments. The marriage that Games makes between Puritanism and migration is not explicitly clear to the reader. In fact, these arguments would contrast nicely with Barry Levy's study of Quakerism and the relationship of the modern American household.

Another distraction in this work is the overabundance of statistics that tend to bog down the reader. While useful and relevant to advancing secondary arguments, the author seems to deploy statistical evidence in way that negates her main themes about migration. Along the same lines, the work would have benefited from more research on the geographic origins, and familial ties, of travelers prior to their departure from London in 1635. The author does touch on this some, but the reader is left wondering if there was a more pronounced historical connection between familial origin in the Old World and settlement in the new World.

Nonetheless, this work provides a new paradigm, and a neglected approach, to studying early English migration and its impact on the New World. The author also provides clear evidence that travel patterns played an important, sometimes subtle and other times dramatic, impact on travelers' destiny in colonial America. The work, however, falls short of convincing the reader that migration patterns were the main historical ingredient for determining settlements in the Atlantic region. This work is most appropriate for those who have a keen understanding of colonial history and an interest in migration history.

The making of the English Atlanic world.......2002-09-26

A scholarly investigation into the Atlantic voyages and destinations of those listed in the 1635 London Port Register. The author follows their careers in the extant colonial and English records before and after their voyages. Excellent insights into the English colonies in New England, Virginia, Bermuda, and Providence Island in the Caribbean.

Questions of why these travelers left, how they traveled, what they found when they arrived, how they prospered or failed, and those that returned to their homeland or traveled to other colonies are all dealt with. Excellent sections on the age and sex compositions of the different destinations under study and the effects of this on their colonial development.

Lots of information on the flight of the puritans from Archbishop Laud and the different gathered church societies they established in the puritan colonies. The continuous migration over the life cycle of these English travelers within England, to London, across the Atlantic and within and between colonies is the ongoing theme of the book.

outstanding work of original research.......2001-11-12

This book by Alison Games, based on her PhD dissertation if I am to understand correctly, is an outstanding piece of original research. Games successfully combines her torturous mining of the archives of the UK, Bermuda, US & elsewhere, with a good understanding of statistics, with intellectually honest speculations about the data (where it exists & where it does not, carefully showing where each hold), with a comprehension of the sweep of history in which this work fits, with a fine writing style. This book is denser than most colonial history, but it is worth pushing through that density for the unique insights the history carries with it & the stimulation of mind the book provides to the reader. Fundamentally, as Games shows, history is about ordinary human beings. The aggregation of their actions is what makes something worthy of the historians attention. In Games work, we can see the individual actions of UK "citizens" in the 1500s & 1600s in making the trek to colonies. This book should be on anyone's required reading list for understanding what happened in the British colonies early-on.

Crystal Dragon (The Great Migration Duology, Book 2)

Average customer rating:

Facinating premise
Disappointing
Well, it wasn't the successor to Carpe Diem
Disappointed
The beginnings of the Liaden Universe

Crystal Dragon (The Great Migration Duology, Book 2)
Sharon Lee , Steve Miller , and Donato Giancola
Manufacturer: Meisha Merlin Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1592220878

Amazon.com

A Letter from Anne McCaffrey about Crystal Dragon:

Every now and then you come across an author, or in this case, a pair, who write exactly what you want to read, the characters and personalities that make you enjoy meeting them. Apart from my passion for Kim by Rudyard Kipling, I had read some authors whose books I would buy the moment they came on sale (thanks to Amazon's policy and pre-ordering facility) and then there are the precious few who sit in honor on my comfort shelf. The books I reach for when something in life has become intolerable. And I rediscover the joy that had infused me at the first reading. Such a book was "Agent of Change" first published by Del Rey. When I had finished, hungering for more, I got in touch with Shelly Shapiro, my editor at Del Rey and, prayers answered, she had the manuscript for "Conflict of Honors" on her desk. I beseeched her to send me a copy asap…my hunger for more of the Liaden Universe so intense. She did. However, I had to wait for the third of that first series: "Carpe Diem!"

I found out that Steve and Sharon had published chap books on the Liaden universe, Val Con and Miri Roberson, Shan yos `Galan and Priscilla. Sharon and Steve are always throwing you quips like that and reading them is all the more enjoyable for them. So I bought those as they were published. Some of them are now also published in hard cover. The only trouble with the chap books is that while they sort out one problem, or elaborate on a special character, they are not very long.

Then I discovered that Meisha Merlin was going to continue the series. I was delighted to get a hard-cover of "Partners in Necessity" which is the three single titles mentioned above…then we have more good chunks of Liaden in "Pilot's Choice" which contains the two titles "Local Custom" and "Scout's Progress". Following them, is "Plan B", which has the most devious plot and then on to "I Dare". Which is gorgeous. And then, for dessert, "Balance of Trade"…and the tales of "Low Port".

What fascinates me most about Lee and Miller as a team is how well blended they are, with a structured society that is almost Chinese in its adherence to custom…the graciousness of the language is always a delight (something I wish I had phrased as aptly). I can certainly see the Tree in my mind's eye, spreading its ancient leaves over the valley it protects and the people it cherishes. And now these authors have come up with another pair of characters and a new chapter in the history of Liaden…"Crystal Soldier". Better yet, it says on the title page Book One of the Great Migration Duology. So, Happy Day, it means another book is coming "Crystal Dragon". Hurrrah. The hero is M. Jela Granthor's Guards, and the heroine is Cantra: names which will have significance to those who have already entered the magic of Liaden.

I rarely rave on and on about stories, but I am devoted to Lee and Miller novels and stories. Start at the beginning, dear reader, and you will be rewarded with a sanctuary you can escape to, as I do when this world we're stuck with is impossible to endure.

Anne McCaffrey, Dragonhold-Underhill, Co Wicklow Ireland.

Book Description

You can't go home again... What do you do when home is a conspiracy that's been discovered and destroyed? When home is a planet in a star system that's gone missing? When home means working for the destroyers of galaxies? When home is a spaceship that's calling out to the enemy? Cantra 'yos Phelium isn't a quitter, but she has more than a little problem: the Enemy has accelerated its attacks and how do you fight an Enemy whose major form of attack is the de-crystallization of everything around itself? A smuggler with a rogue soldier for a co-pilot, and a tree with an attitude for crew, Cantra's the only one who can get close to the man who holds equations that might, that just might - thwart the Enemy. All she has to do is help a young pilot from a missing world, juggle a slippery promise she never quite made to a pair of wizards, and then forget who she is along with everything, and everyone, she's ever known.

Customer Reviews:

Facinating premise.......2007-05-06

Very interesting premise with characters you can relate to. A good story in itself but leaves you wanting more.

Disappointing.......2007-01-10

I didn't think this sequel did as good a job with grabbing the reader as the first book. It was all right once I got into it, but wouldn't have read a second one if this one had been first.

Well, it wasn't the successor to Carpe Diem .......2006-11-09

I picked this up at the library, mistakenly being impressed that this picked up where

When the other review says "There is a prologue story in Crystal Dragon that has been known to convince people that they picked up the wrong book - but keep reading, it will make sense" -- they were really right. I almost dropped the book back in the library return without finishing it.

This is a prequel novel, a foundation novel that explains about as much as it obscures. Once it gets moving the writing is tight, the characters make sense and you get a feel for how a universe could come up empty and how everything was before everything was.

Disappointed.......2006-07-18

Not an enjoyable read- certainly way Below others in this series.....disjointed - hard to hold on to the main "story Line"....seems like this all could have been in a synopsis of 1-2 chapters or one of their "magazine" phamplets.........kind of like boy meets girl- boy marries girl- one dies the other goes on - the enemy "vanquished- sort of. so forth and so on and on and on......but the reader does learn a bit more about Jela, Cantra and the founding of Clan Korval in between alot of gobblety gook.....but characters not developed well at all to hold your interest.

The beginnings of the Liaden Universe.......2006-07-14

Lee and Miller's Liaden universe never fails to enchant, and this latest book answers all of the reader's questions about the beginnings of the story very satisfactorily. The characters sweep the reader up and take him along on their adventures; sharing along the way their joys and sadness. An excellent read.

Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration

Average customer rating:

This is the best on the subject

Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration
James R. Grossman
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Emigration & Immigration | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0226309959

Book Description

Grossman's rich, detailed analysis of black migration to Chicago during World War I and its aftermath brilliantly captures the cultural meaning of the movement.

"A vivid portrayal of an archetypical modernizing experience—peasants pulling up roots, moving to distant cities, and seeking to adapt to the strange new world of industrial capitalism."—George M. Fredrickson, Times Literary Supplement

Customer Reviews:

This is the best on the subject.......2005-03-23

As a fellow researcher in the area of Southern to Northern migration, Grossman's book has been invaluable to me. It is well written, well researched, and immensely interesting. It is the best book on the first great black Southern migration to Chicago, "The Land of Hope."

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