History Book Club at the Homestead
The History Book Club at the Homestead has completed its first year, during which we read books that covered the Twenties, Aviation and Water.
In the upcoming year, the topics will be Presidents and Politics, Film and Ethnicity. Please check here for dates, times and book titles. If you are interested in joining, please contact the Homestead Museum in the City of Industry, CA.
The first book that we will discuss is "A Country of Vast Designs" by Robert W. Merry. "In a one-term presidency, James K. Polk completed the story of America’s Manifest Destiny—extending its territory across the continent by threatening England with war and manufacturing a controversial and unpopular two-year war with Mexico."
The first meeting where we will discuss this book is Friday, February 5, 2016. In the interim, I will publish from time to time my take on topics from the book that I find interesting but may not one of the main topics of the book and our subsequent discussion. I will start with this post and discuss the migration of people from the borderlands of England. On page 13, Chapter 1 of his book, Robert Merry writes, "beginning in summer 1717 there arrived upon American shores a new breed of immigrant from the British Isles, far different from the Puritans, Quakers and Cavaliers who had already settled in their chosen locales."
We know that the Puritans were the first arrivals from England in America who established a permanent settlement in the New World. David Hackett Fischer wrote a lengthy tome (898 pages) titled "Albion's Seed" that describes these immigrants and three other significant groups that came from England. One group came from East Anglia and settled in Massachusetts; another group came from South and West England and settled in Virginia; a third group came from the North Midlands and settled in the Delaware Valley; the fourth group came from the Borderlands and settled in the backcountry of America.
Even though all these groups came from England, they each had distinct characteristics reflecting their station within the English hierarchy. Fischer discusses these characteristics in great detail in "Albion's Seed."
For the first two hundred years of our nation, virtually every President was descended from these groups. Most of these men came from the North British borderers and include Andrew Jackson and James W. Polk (subject of the Merry's book). The second largest number came from the Puritans of Massachusetts. The next largest group came from Virginia's Cavaliers. The fourth group from the North Midlands contributed the least and include Warren Harding and Richard Nixon.
As a side note, William Workman, co-founder of Rancho La Puente, was from the North British borderland and exhibited a tough, don't-take-any-prisoners attitude toward squatters on his ranch.
