Highlanders
Unlocking Identity Through History by James MacKillop In Chapter 2 of MacKillop's richly researched story of the Highlanders, he explores the origin of the Scottish name "Campbell." Likely, he writes, it was not the "beautiful fields" of the possible French origin - especially telling is the insertion of the ''p" - (Champ/Camp = fields, belle = beautiful), but the more flavorful "wry mouth" of the Gaelic (Cam = wry/crooked, beul = mouth). And that, in a simple sample case, is just one delightful moment from this deep and fascinating dive into a people about whom we know so little, fictionalize so readily, and understand so poorly. Jim MacKillop is well known as a Central New York scholar and journalist who received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University and later taught there; taught at Onondaga Community College; wrote for the Syracuse New Times; and published ten books, dozens of scholarly articles and thousands of newspaper articles. But th
