Two Continents, One Culture: The Scotch-Irish in Southern Appalachia (review)

This short book attempts to explain, through historic representation and ethnic ideology, the various ways in which people of Scotch-Irish descent who inhabit Appalachia and Northern Ireland are culturally similar. Stephen Brown, Elizabeth Hirschman, and Pauline Maclaran examine four areas of ethnic behavior: music and dance, agricultural practices, fighting and hunting, and technological innovativeness. These ethnic categories of behavior, the authors contend, have remained largely similar (with a few notable exceptions) and relatively unchanged among people who migrated from southwestern Scotland to Northern Ireland in the early 1600s, and then on to Appalachia during the middle 1700s. After a brief first chapter on the migration of Lowland Scots to Northern Ireland and then to Appalachia, subsequent chapters of the book are structured around Scotch-Irish ideology and representation of the aforementioned areas of ethnic behavior.

The authors employ multiple research methods to examine the historical evolution of Scotch-Irish ideology, all of which are grounded in consumer behavior theory. Participant observation, interviews, and textual documentation are utilized to argue that “the Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland and the Scotch-Irish in Appalachia have maintained much of the same consumption ideology for around 400 years but have manifested these behaviors in different forms, depending on their minority or majority status within the surrounding population” (xiv).

What the book does well is to present an in-depth representation of Scotch-Irish material (folk) culture by giving a detailed account of the cultural diffusion of such things as building techniques, farming practices, musical instruments, and religious practice. The reader gains a clear picture of the cultural impact that Ulster-Scots from Northern Ireland had on Appalachia. Brown, Hirschman, and Maclaren also effectively delineate the ways in which Ulster-Scots identity has evolved differently from Scotch-Irish identity since the middle 1700s. For example, Appalachian Scotch-Irish have remained agricultural and heavily influenced by Celtic cultural norms, while Ulster-Scots have rejected all forms of Celtic identity because of their ongoing conflict with Catholics who claim Celtic identity.

Beyond these contributions, however, the book has numerous shortcomings. Although the authors do concede that there is a lack of conscious ethnic identity among the Scotch-Irish, they attest that the Scotch-Irish form an identifiable ethnic group. They suggest, as do many Appalachian scholars, that Scotch-Irish identity has become the predominant influence on American identity. As such, to be Scotch-Irish is to be American, and to be fully American subsumes any explicit recognition of being Scotch- Irish. To make this argument, however, and still suggest that there is an identifiable Scotch-Irish identity, is a contradiction that remains unresolved by the authors. Can the Scotch-Irish be considered an ethnic group in the absence of self-recognition and ethnic awareness? This question is never explicitly addressed in the book, although the authors do claim that among the Scotch-Irish there is “behavioral persistence in the absence of ethnic awareness” (88). This leaves one to assume that an identifiable Scotch- Irish identity exists only in the minds of those (particularly academics and Ulster-Scots from Northern Ireland) who recognize and label specific cultural practices as being Scotch-Irish. I, for example, did not recognize I was Scotch-Irish until my Protestant friends and colleagues in Northern Ireland informed me that I was.

Another major shortcoming of the book is the uncritical assumption that the Scotch-Irish have perpetuated a culture of aggression and violence that has been passed down through the generations from their clan-driven Scottish-Celt ancestors. The book is laden with references to the idea that the Scotch-Irish constitute a culture that is prone to aggression and violence. The authors make no attempt to critically analyze such assumptions. Numerous Appalachian scholars have effectively argued that violence among the Scotch-Irish has been more a result of broader, changing social and economic conditions than any inherently aggressive cultural traits. This book would...