While Albion's Seed was initially hailed in popular and academic reviews, when people looked closer as I did, they began to see that the "Borderers" section is one big fib. His section on "Borderers" is meant to create an image of a race of uncivilized whites who are habitually violent, chaotic, stupid, and resist attempts by others to "civilize" them, when in fact the Scots-Irish often sought integration, while rural, poor Appalachianers were more often the victims of violence from these supposedly civilized groups. One of Fischer's sources claims that "the whole of Scotland can be considered a Border region" of England, ignoring Scotland's centrality to the development of liberalism, science, and nationalism.įischer creates a Frankenstein's monster of "Borderers" out of bits and pieces of anecdote of specific events from the 18th to 20th centuries, mostly getting his methodology and analysis directly from pre-1920 sources, and ignoring most research contemporary to his own publication. He calls the Appalachian settlers "Borderers" regardless of their actual place of origin. Some of the early colonists of the rural South and Appalachia were not English - they are often called Scots-Irish - so they serve as his chief counterexample and outgroup. Fischer's book is called Albion's Seed for a reason: he wishes to reinforce that America's ruling class came not from various peoples from the British Isles, or Europe, or other parts of the world, but specifically from the English first and foremost. The place in which we may see Fischer reviving the Teutonic germ myth is chiefly in the section on "Borderers". Specifically, part of the mission of Albion's Seed is to revive the "Teutonic germ theory" of pre-WW2 historiography, which states that America achieved power and liberty based on unique English cultural achievements, rather than geographic or social advantages (for example, slavery). In the Puritan and Cavalier sections this isn't all that bad, but the Quaker section is a bit dubious, and the Appalachian section betrays a rather dark undercurrent, which was recognized by academics when the book was first published. There are various little bits of folk etymology and urban legend here and there. Much of the Puritan section is based on a small selection of 19th century reminisces, rather than contemporary sources. However, when I read the book for myself and started looking at the footnotes, I discovered some interesting difficulties. The author, David Fischer, pushes the idea that English immigrants self-sorted into different cultural communities. It's a book with some fun elements, especially about the Puritans of New England and the Cavaliers who formed the origins of slaveholding Southern society.
#PEARSONS HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY TESTS WESTWARD EXPANSION FULL#
( edit: This is not a complete rejection of Albion's Seed, see the full post below and comments)Ī Reddit search confirms for me that Albion's Seed is still taught in universities. Unfortunately it is also r/badhistory, and in this post I will prove why. I even shared it on my Facebook wall at some point. This is one of the most popular posts ever on SSC and is frequently reposted and quoted. A recent post on r/badphilosophy reminded me of the Slate Star Codex review of Albion's Seed.
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