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The American Irish: A Political and Social Portrait
An acknowledged classic, this work is a well-researched and entertaining history of the Irish in the United States. The author's goal in writing the book was to explore those areas in which the Irish have made a significant contribution to American culture, including politics, religion, literature, drama, and such specialized activities as prizefighting and law enforcement. The text is highlighted by twenty-one photographs.
520 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
July 19, 2010
A very good portrait of the Irish in the country from the original Scotch-Irish immigrants and early Catholics to the election of JFK. There are some interesting stories of some early settlers in Texas and in the Western part of the country that I had never heard of and made entertaining reading. A large emphasis of the book is on the modern Catholics in the Eastern cities like New York and Boston.
The Tammany politcians are other late 19th century machine political machines are explained in great detail. Shannon seems to have an inate feel for the Irish-American experience and his periodic commentaries are insightful and original.
He includes sections on notable Irish in the Arts such as Eugene O'Neil and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Unique insights such as the Irish dominance of the theatre in the first quaret of the twentieth century are obvious now, think Yeats, Shaw, Fitzgerald, but not entirely obvious to this reviewer.
The usual suspects in the political world are profiled in enough detail for an overview. James Michael Curley of Boston gets his own chapter as does Al Smith, the first Irish-American Catholic nominated for President by a major party. The Irish-Americans we would like to forget are profiled; Joe McCarthy with his paranoia and Father Coughlin's anti-semitism during the New Deal.
This may be a little heavy for a beach read this summer, but a copy can probably be found on Amazon at reasonable price and put on your reading list.
The Tammany politcians are other late 19th century machine political machines are explained in great detail. Shannon seems to have an inate feel for the Irish-American experience and his periodic commentaries are insightful and original.
He includes sections on notable Irish in the Arts such as Eugene O'Neil and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Unique insights such as the Irish dominance of the theatre in the first quaret of the twentieth century are obvious now, think Yeats, Shaw, Fitzgerald, but not entirely obvious to this reviewer.
The usual suspects in the political world are profiled in enough detail for an overview. James Michael Curley of Boston gets his own chapter as does Al Smith, the first Irish-American Catholic nominated for President by a major party. The Irish-Americans we would like to forget are profiled; Joe McCarthy with his paranoia and Father Coughlin's anti-semitism during the New Deal.
This may be a little heavy for a beach read this summer, but a copy can probably be found on Amazon at reasonable price and put on your reading list.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review