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Article: Heart of valor.(Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- December 27, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, by James Webb (Broadway, 384 pp., $25.95)
WITHOUT really intending to do so, James Webb may have written the most important political book of 2004. Born Fighting helps explain why George W. Bush won reelection by a margin greater than conventional wisdom predicted. Democrats especially, but Republicans as well, ought to take note of this book.
The Scots-Irish, writes Webb, are all around us. They shape our culture,
more in the abstract power of emotion
than through the argumentative force
of law. In their insistent individualism,
they are not likely to put an ethnic label
on ...