Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America

This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins.

While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are Albion's Seed, no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.


Author: David Hackett Fischer
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 03/14/1991
Pages: 984
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 3.00lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.10w x 1.90d
ISBN13: 9780195069051
ISBN10: 0195069056
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | Colonial Period (1600-1775)
- Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | General

About the Author

David Hackett Fischer is Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University. He is the author of numerous books, including Paul Revere's Ride and Growing Old in America.