Born Fighting

The Scots-Irish comrpised forty percent of the Revolutionary War army. They were pioneers like Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston. They were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain. And they have given America numerous military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton. Born Fighting illustrates how the Scots-Irish redefined American politics, creating the populist movement and giving the country a dozen presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. And it explores how the Scots-Irish culture of isolation, hard luck, stubbornness, and mistrust of the nation’s elite formed and still dominates blue-collar America, the military services, 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.