Customer Reviews

A People Set Apart: The Scotch-Irish in Eastern Ohio

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having grown up in Orange County, California I must say that the region discussed in this book is quite literally a world away. But I am drawn to it. My grandparents constantly told stories of the little college town of New Concord and how they met there after World War I and how they used to take long walks and swim in the lake there on summer evenings. Because of this book I have yearned to learn more about where my grandparents fell in love; to discover the town and the college and walks they used to take. I hear autumn there is something to behold. A great work of history that binds the generations together...

This work is an amazing example of local history at its best. The author has done a wonderful job of weaving the story of a small town and of a region with the greater saga of the civil war. A delightful read!

In the past hundred years or so the academic study of history has become progressively more detached from the rich world of local history and genealogy. Academic historians have increasingly occupied a rarefied and isolated world, composing boring monographs that make no attempt to engage a larger audience. To compound matters, academics are generally unwilling to avail themselves of the valuable work being done by legions of local historians and genealogists across the country. This delightful work by Dr. Lorle Porter, an emeritus professor at Muskingum College, is a welcome and fascinating exception. Dr. Porter has bridged the gap, and established an impressive scholarly standard.

This meticulously documented study of the Presbyterian Scotch-Irish in east central Ohio is an important and valuable resource for scholars and graduate students who are interested in the convergence of religious and ethnic currents in the Old Northwest during the middle and late antebellum years. By exploring the response of these communities to rising sectional tensions and their enthusiastic response to the Union's call to arms, Dr. Porter connects them directly to the northern "nation-building" project in a direct and exciting way.