I'm Not Looking for New England...

A recent article maps the major American ancestry by county, and, if ancestry is the reason why folks study a particular type of history, the future of British Studies doesn't look good anywhere in the USA except New England (Jessica Jerreat, “The Map That Shows Where America Came from,” Mail Online, 1 September 2013). And by "British," that mainly means Irish in Massachusetts and Eastern New York. (It doesn't show what is the second largest ancestry claimed in each county, but it is still interesting in terms of identity.) The Appalachians largely think they are American, which might be a political statement, but probably means they are unsure of the background. What might be interesting is to map waves of immigrants over time onto the whole map. Does "English," mean pre-1800 immigration never followed by a significant wave into that area (New Hampshire, Maine) thereafter? (Apologies to the great social history, Kirsty MacColl for use of the title.)


earlymodernengland by Newton Key.

Dating Historical Interests: The Little England of the 1930s

Larger version of whole chart here

This is a portion of a 1931 chart encompassing the entire history of the world. “The Entire History of the World—Really, All of It—Distilled Into a Single Gorgeous Chart” (The Vault, Rebecca Onion, Aug. 12, 2013) Europe and especially England and the British Isles dominated the 17th-19th centuries. Few of the rulers or events in England, however, have any link to world affairs: England driven out of France (1453, if one overlooks Calais), defeat of the Spanish Armada, East India Company, Pilgrim Fathers, War with Holland, Unite with Holland, Penn, "Marlborough Wars Against Spain" (not France?), and Gibraltar.


earlymodernengland by Newton Key.