We're Indians Sure Enough: The Legacy of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States

By Michael Newton, PhD, Edinburgh University

320 pp., ISBN: 0-9713858-0-7 US $23.95

This book is the first critical examination of the cultural record of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States, including the first extensive collection of Gaelic poetry composed about their experiences in their adopted home. It provides first-hand accounts written by Scottish Gaels as they fled oppression, became engaged in the conflicts in North America, and settled in unfamiliar territories.

Their songs, which can be heard on the companion album The Songs of the Scottish Highlanders in the United States, give voice to a people who have previously been known only through impersonal records and documents written in what was, to them, a foreign language. This literature enables us to understand their lives from their own perspective in a way which dry historical documents cannot and form a backdrop for their adventures and their remarkable interactions with the other peoples of America.

"He has reawakened the voice of the Gael from out of the silent records that lurk on obscure library shelves and has revived the pulse of history ... And his concluding analysis concerning the intermingling of ethnic cultures sets the details contained in his book into a broad and valuable perspective." ‚ Prof. Charles Dunn, Dept. of Celtic, Harvard University

"As I read this remarkable book by Michael Newton on the uncharted heritage of gaelic literature in North America, the question kept coming to mind: why has someone not done this before? Michael has plowed a largely neglected field of study; I predict that his pioneering work will bear rich fruit and will stimulate other research in an area important to the cultural history of both Scotland and North America." -- Rev. Dr. Douglas F. Kelly, Vice-President of Scottish Heritage USA

To learn more about the author, click on Michael Newton

Return to the Newton Menu Page

Thistle and Shamrock Books
P.O. Box 42 * Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 548-2207 * FAX (703) 548-6162

Let me know what you think of all this by e-mail; mail to:

rory@his.com