By John Tiffany. Being a Scot is not all kilts and bagpipes, by any means. Often inaccurately portrayed as backward romantics, the Scots in many ways laid an essential foundation for today’s intellectual, commercial and political milieu. Each place they entered around the globe—North America, Australia, India—they left their mark. Most of it seems to have been of a distinctly positive nature. Here we focus on the contributions of Scotsmen to the culture of the United States.
Scots and people of Scottish descent have for some reason contributed to our civilization far out of proportion to their numbers. In fact, if it were not for the Scots, there would probably be no such thing as the United States as an independent nation. Oddly, there would probably be no British empire either; however, that matter lies outside the scope of this article.
The Scottish connection with the United States, or what was to become the United States, goes back as far as possible in our history. [Read the entire article as PDF…]
Taken from
The Barnes Review, January/February 2008: Of Scottish Blood: American Freedom