Ulster to America

For years, immigrants from Ulster have been viewed through a monochromatic lens as hard living, hard fighting, individualistic, elitist, and resistant to authority. This collection of essays challenges that entrenched view, presenting a more nuanced perspective on the Scots-Irish settlers and the crucial role they played in shaping the broader American culture. In Ulster to America: The Scots-Irish Migration Experience, 1680-1830, editor Warren R. Hofstra has gathered contributions from pioneering scholars who are rewriting the history of the Scots-Irish. In addition to presenting fresh information based on thorough and detailed research, they offer cutting-edge interpretations that help explain the Scots-Irish experience in the United States. In place of implacable Scots-Irish individualism, the writers stress the urge to build communities among Ulster immigrants.^ In place of rootlessness and isolation, the authors point to the trans-Atlantic continuity of Scots-Irish settlement and the presence of Germans and Anglo-Americans in so-called Scots-Irish areas. In a variety of ways, the book asserts, the Scots-Irish actually modified or abandoned some of their own cultural traits as