It's fascinating how the original question I posed two days ago has evolved into its present condition.

One of cajunscot's sources, Celeste Ray's Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South is worth noting. I read this a coupla years ago and would strongly suggest the same for anyone with even a passing interest. It's more of a textbook, but not narcoleptic. Though her research was centered on South'ners, there's much overlap to other Scotophiles in the US.

Prof Ray's a professor of anthropology at the University of the South and writes of "the phenomenal growth of the Scottish heritage movement across the US".

She notes that the movement is dominated by "highlandism," a phenomenon she defines as ScotoAmericans, regardless of their ancestral regional origins (Lowland, Highland, Ulster Scots), "claim a Highland Scots identity constructed in the 19th century through romanticism, militarism, & tourism."

Highland Heritage is another eye-opening book much like John Prebble's The Highland Clearances and James Hunter's A Dance Called America. Highly recommended.

A sidenote.... I bought James Hunter's book, Glencoe and the Indians, but haven't made time to read it yet.

Slainte yall,
steve