Albions Seed: Four British Folkways in America

 

Albions Seed: Four British Folkways in America
Albions Seed: Four British Folkways in America
by Authors: David Hackett Fischer
Released: March, 1991
ISBN: 0195069056
Paperback

Sales Rank: 6,336
List price: $27.50
Our price: $18.70 (You save: $8.8)
Book > Albions Seed: Four British Folkways in America > Customer Reviews:
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Albions Seed: Four British Folkways in America > Customer Review #1:
A book tor British-Americans to reaffirm their roots

This is a book that will appeal most strongly to Americans of British ancestry. Fischer writes at one point of of walking around the countryside in Oxfordshire and feeling that he was home. This is very personal history, both for Fischer and British-Americans. Who according to census returns, given by Fischer, are now an ethnic minority in the USA. Many of the reviewers speak of how it how it explained things to them of their own personal life. I read the book first 7 years ago. It reaffirmed my sense of kinship and affinity with the USA ( and might explain why I was awake at 2 in the morning, 9 pm in Washington, watching the Presidential election coverage on the BBC). It is scholarly and full of fascinating cultural details. It is illuminating on how British culture, institutions and folkways have shaped the USA as it is now. (Its sad that the Scotch-irish seem to have had more influence than the Quakers). This is a book for Anglo-americans to reafffirm their roots. It should also remind English readers how much we have in common and why. I was fascinated to learn how many Cheshire place-names are reproduced in Pennsylvannia including Prestbury where I was born. And would love confirmation that there are people in Pennsylvannia who use or know the meaning of dialect words like nesh, gormless, daddy-long-legs.

Albions Seed: Four British Folkways in America > Customer Review #2:
Indepth discussion of early British colonies in America!

David Hackett Fischer takes a new approach to the study of the four main English groups settling colonial America: Puritans from East Anglia to Massachusetts, Royalist Elite from south England to Virginia, Friends from the North Midlands to the Delaware Valley and North Brits to the "American backcountry." He presents his view as a link between past and present thinking.

This approach is especially appreciated by family historians, desiring a a better view into the hearts and minds of their forefathers. Some of the topics include: religious origins, the colonial mood, speech, building, gender, sex, children, death, magic ways, food, sports, time, work, wealth,rank, power.

This book has maps, illustrations, and SO MUCH information, youll want to own this for easy reference!

DearMYRTLE

Daily Genealogy Columnist

Genealogy Forum on America Online

Keyword: dearmyrtle



Albions Seed: Four British Folkways in America > Customer Review #3:
Powerful Work

Fischer uses the sociological concept of "Folkways" to organize his exploration of the cultures which created the United States. Folkways are the "ways of life" that combine to create a distinct cultures. In turn, those distinct cultures combine to create our society.

Fischer identifies four relevant folkways: the Puritans of New England, the Cavaliers of Virginia, the Quakers of the Delaware Valley and the Borderers (or Scotch Irish) of the back country.

The most extraordinary part of this long, long book was the manner in which Fischer was able to unpack the regional cultures of the British Isles. As Fischer himself remarks, British historians and social scientists have devoted negligible time and attention to regional culture (as supposed to strictly "local" culture, which is often covered in Britain).

Once Fischer links up the regions in England with their counter parts in America, the once obscure has become obvious. This, I believe, is one of the hallmarks of excellent scholarship.

Its almost impossible to critize anything about this book until the last hundred pages, when Fischer blithely asserts that all events for the past three hundred years are eminently explainable in terms of the four folkways of this book.

I was suprised to see him reach so far, especially since this is "volume 1" of a "proposed five volume set". Since this book was published fifteen years ago, I guess well have to be patient while we wait for, "The Ebony Tree: African Folkways in America"
, volume two of the set.

Still, this book was near revelatory in both method and analysis.



 
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