Dispelling much of what he terms the "mythology" of the Scotch-Irish, James Leyburn provides an absorbing account of their heritage. He traces their life in Scotland, when the essentials of their character and culture were shaped; their removal to Northern Ireland; and their successive migrations to America, where many settled in the backcountry of Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, before joining the flow of pioneeers westward in the wake of the Revolutionary War.