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Wednesday, March 19

The Two Forces

Two major formative forces in the United States:  the earliest one, which arose from the nomadic 'native' American hunting tribes, then Puritan immigrants and pioneer - homesteaders.  The other force arose from waves of immigrants from agrarian European societies ruled for centuries by monarchs and marked by peasant uprisings.

(It can argued there's a third force in the American southwest, a confluence of Spanish culture and Mayan/Incan ones, but these are surprisingly similar in that they too were in the agrarian - monarchist - peasant model.)
 
The earliest force created the Do It Yourself mindset.  The later one created the Looking for Mr Good King mindset.

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2 comments:

DocJim65 said...

What happened to the gangs of Scots who were sent or paid their own way with a bond and came to America in the late 1600s and 1700s? Their culture of fierce loyalty and fighting tamed the western frontier of Lancaster County, PA and then to western edge of Virginia and North Carolina. Some migrated on into the deep south.
These were the best soldiers of the Confederacy and many today serve in the US Army and US Marines in the 21st Century.

bdoran said...

Well the Scotch-Irish go farther than that, all the way at least into Western NY.

Dal Riada goes into Allegheny County NY and further west, following the mountains.