Plot Synopsis

Senator Jim Webb of Virginia goes on a personal journey to tell the largely forgotten story of the Scots-Irish, a people whose values, culture and fighting spirit profoundly shaped America. Senator Webb follows their battle-scarred trail from poverty-stricken Scotland to the Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland, then to the mountains of Appalachia and beyond. Along the way he tracks their heroes and legends -- from William Wallace to Andrew Jackson, the first of 17 Scots-Irish U.S. Presidents, and from Mark Twain to George Patton. The Scot-Irish played a critical role in winning the American Revolution and in all the wars that followed. They gave us the basis of populist-style democracy, the fundamentalism of the Bible Belt, and the "play hard" combination of whiskey and country music.