In a message dated 08/07/1999 9:01:34 AM Central Daylight Time, W5DRP writes: > So I wonder if you (or others) could send me some citations to the critics' > writings so that I may read them. Who knows? I may change my lofty opinion! > Thanks in advance! I wish I could recall because, as you know, few things are as satisfying as to find an authority whose opinion agrees with one's own. Unfortunately, that author wasn't as emphatic in voicing his opinion as Fisher was in expounding on his, and the title and author didn't stick in my mind like "Albion's Seed" stuck in my craw. "Albion's Seed" came highly recommended. However, I expect a certain amount of objectivity in any work of non-fiction, but Fisher made no attempt to hide his prejudices. This author was mean spirited in his condemnation of a people and a region. Odd that the German settlers of the mid-Atlantic states could have made such a worthy contribution to the country, but the large number of them who came into the Carolinas and points west were incapable of any influence whatsoever. Odd that the English settlers of New England laid the foundation for our freedoms while banishing or burning those who worshipped differently, while those in Virginia and the Carolinas and most especially those in Maryland were hardly worthy of mention. David Hackett Fisher is not alone in putting forth his personal prejudices and calling it history. Its been done since the beginning of time and no doubt will continue as long as there are victors and vanquished. However, Fisher, in his acerbity, is almost in a class to himself. Careful historians try to put aside their opinions. By the time I finished reading "Albion's Seed" it seemed to me that it was much more important to Fisher that he convince me that the Scots-Irish were a slovenly, ungovernable horde than it was for him to educate me on these waves of migration. Long before the final page, I had become bored with David Hackett Fisher's petulance. I would shorten his middle name to one syllable. Joyce