Albion's Seed

Four British Folkways in America, Vol. 1

By: David Hackett Fischer

Narrated by: Julian Elfer

This fascinating audiobook 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 audiobook 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.

©1989 David Hackett Fischer (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Brilliant analysis

Fascinating cultural history with surprisingly powerful present day implications. Fischer is a national treasure. Excelkent narration.

Our roots

A brilliant analysis of how 4 17th & early 18th century immigrants from different sections of the British isles left a lingering and profound impact on our forged but conflicted identity.

An important work for US history buffs.

all my friends are sick and tired of me going on about this book, so I'll just say that it's impeccably narrated, well written, and clear and to the point. one of the best and most interesting books on US history I've ever "read".

Unfathomably based

I always found learning about different cultures and country’s fascinating, but I had no idea the depths of which my own country’s cultures were and how deep and integral role they played in our formation as a nation and its conceptions of freedom! Highly recommended!

Is this our nation?

Tedious at times, but much here for every responsible U.S. citizen to consider. Highly recommend. Now I wonder where the author's colleagues and critics most agree or disagree.

History like it’s supposed to be

Well written, in depth research with interesting and engaging interpretations about both American history and what history should do. I gained new understanding as to what America is about today. Should be a classic for all the best reasons. The research is of the breadth and depth that it won’t get dated. Masterful. One of my favorite American history books on my shelf.

This book explains about 75% of the United States.

A thorough and eye-opening walk through the early English settlers in the Americas … incredible details and amazing through-lines that make 1700s America incredibly relevant to today’s United States. The expression that “The Apple doesn’t fall far the tree” is proven over and over through the histories of the Puritans, the Chesapeake Anglicans, the Delaware Valley and Pennsylvania Quakers, and the English borderlands immigrants that continue to shape our lives through culture.

Should be required reading for every American

This book explains who we are and why. Anyone who wants to grasp the dynamic behind our deepest conflicts will find compelling explanation here.

Got Here From WhatIfAltHist

I found this book to be truly interesting. It aligned perfectly with some recent comments Douglas Murray made about Western Culture. Apparently, Eric Weinstein had told a story of when he was a child, he assumed that all ice cream was vanilla at its foundation and to that vanilla you added flavors to get "real" ice cream. His point was that vanilla is a complex and subtle flavor all on its own. Its ubiquity is not a strike against it and we treat it as a given at great peril to all of civilization.

A dangerous, modern narrative is that infecting our discourse is the idea that some groups lack culture while others supply it. DHF's point about the intermingling of these four folkways and how they conceptualized and then manifested a dynamic form of freedom in the American experiment might very well have saved the world .. and will continue to save it if we consider the subtleties of "boring" vanilla.

A brilliant analysis of American social history.

First off, this book is a pleasure to read. It is long but always stimulating and fascinating. The author powerfully supports his thesis both quantitatively and qualitatively. There are many appealing anecdotes. I came to admire the primarily Quaker folkways very much and had much trouble with the Virginian and southern backwoods folkways and their endemic violence and gross inequalities but can appreciate Hackett’s idea of American freedom being a mixture of all four traditions.

It is also a pleasure to listen to with the narrator using a pleasant neutral voice, except when voicing specific local dialects which are a part of the author’s many folkways.