Redefining Irishness in a Coastal Maine City, 1770-1870 - Bridget''s Belfast

Redefining Irishness in a Coastal Maine City, 1770-1870: Bridget's Belfast examines how Irish immigrants shaped and reshaped their identity in a rural New England community. Forty percent of Irish immigrants to the United States settled in rural areas. Achieving success beyond large urban centers required distinctive ways of performing Irishness. Class, status, and gender were more significant than ethnicity. Close reading of diaries, newspapers, local histories, and public papers allows for nuanced understanding of immigrant lives amid stereotype and the nineteenth century evolution of a Scotch-Irish identity.

List of contents

Prologue 1. Irish in Public 2. Irish Enterprise 3. The Irish "Other" 4. The Irish of Stereotype 5. Irish on the Move 6. Inventing Scotch-Irishness 7. Bridging Social Boundaries 8. Making It Through the War. Epilogue

About the author

Kay Retzlaff is Professor of English at the University of Maine at Augusta.

Summary

This book explains how class, status, and gender affected individual and community perceptions of ethnicity in a rural New England community. It investigates how stereotype—and immigrants' reactions to a variety of negative receptions—helped create new identities on the frontier.

Product details

• Authors: Kay Retzlaff, Kay (University of Maine At Augusta Retzlaff
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2021
• EAN: 9781032035062
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3203506-2
• No. of pages: 222
• Series: Routledge Advances in American History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, Maine, HISTORY / General, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century, HISTORY / Modern / 18th Century, HISTORY / United States / General, c 1800 to c 1900, Ireland, Migration, immigration & emigration, Social and cultural history, Migration, immigration and emigration, History of the Americas, C 1700 To C 1800, Later 18th century c 1750 to c 1799