[2] Fischer explains "the origins and stability of a social system which for two centuries has remained stubbornly democratic in its politics, capitalist in its economy, libertarian in its laws and individualist in its society and pluralistic in its culture.

"[3] The four migrations are discussed in the four main chapters of the book: Fischer includes satellite peoples such as Welsh, Scots, Irish, Dutch, French, Germans, Italians and a treatise on African slaves in South Carolina.

Fischer remarks on his own connective feelings between the Chesapeake and Southern England in Albion's Seed but attempts to flesh them out in Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement, a corollary of his work in the book.

[9]Fischer describes his modified application of the folkways concept as "the normative structure of values, customs and meanings that exist in any culture," which rise from social and intellectual origins.

Each of the four distinct folkways is comparatively described and defined in the following terms: The book has won a number of awards including the American Association of University Presses prize for overall excellence in 1996.