Several weeks ago, the magazine section of "The Independent" carried an interesting story about "Born Fighting," a new book by James Webb that traces the history of one of America’s largest cultural groups, the Scots-Irish.

Webb’s study of the Scots-Irish parallels and often intersects our interest in the people of Appalachia. Several friends in Ashland suggested we carry the book in our bookstore. I even got a note from a JSF Associate Member in Norway advocating this book. I am pleased to report that it is now available in our bookstore and mail order inventory.

Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scots-Irish migrated to America in the eighteenth century, traveling in groups of families and bringing with them not only long experience as rebels and outcasts but also unparalleled skills as frontiersmen and guerilla fighters. Their cultural identity reflected acute individualism, as well as a dislike of aristocracy and a strong military tradition. Over time, the Scots-Irish defined the attitudes and values of the military, of working-class America, and even American democracy itself.

"Born Fighting" is the first book to chronicle the full journey of this remarkable cultural group, and the profound, but unrecognized, role it has played in the shaping of America. Written with the storytelling verve that has earned his works great acclaim, Webb, a Vietnam combat veteran and former Secretary of the Navy, traces the history of his people. He begins nearly two thousand years ago at Hadrian’s Wall, when the nation of Scotland was formed north of the Wall through armed conflict, in contrast to England’s formation to the south through commerce and trade. Through engrossing chronicles of the challenges the Scots-Irish faced, Webb vividly portrays how they developed the qualities that helped settle the American frontier and define the American character.

"Born Fighting" shows that the Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain. They have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy. Webb argues that the Scots-Irish redefined American politics, creating the populist movement and giving the country a dozen presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan.

"Born Fighting" also explores the Scots-Irish role in blue-collar America, the Bible Belt, and country music.

Both a distinguished work of cultural history and a human drama that speaks straight to the heart of contemporary America, "Born Fighting" reintroduces America to its most powerful, patriotic, and individualistic cultural group—one too often ignored or taken for granted.

"Born Fighting" and other histories of Kentucky and Appalachia are available in the JSF Bookstore, 1645 Winchester Avenue, in downtown Ashland.

For more information call (606) 326-1667.

The Regional Readers meet Tuesday at the Jesse Stuart Foundation from 5:45-7:00 pm to discuss Verna Mae Slone’s Appalachian classic, "What My Heart Wants To Tell." The public is invited to join our reading group.