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While the impacts of Irish emigration to America following the Great Famine of 1845-1852 have been well studied, comparatively little scholarly attention has been paid to the effects of reverse migration on Irish culture, society, and politics. Inspired by the work of historian David P. B. Fitzpatrick (1948-2019) and forming a companion to his final published work The Americanisation of Ireland: Migration and Settlement 1841-1925 (Cambridge, 2019), this volume explores the influence of America in shaping Ireland's modernisation and globalisation. The essays use the concept of Americanisation to explore interdisciplinary themes of material culture, marketing, religion, politics, literature, cinema, music, and folklore. America in Ireland reveals a late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Irish society that was more cosmopolitan than previously assumed, in which 'Returned Yanks' brought home new-fangled notions of behaviour and activities and introduced their families to American products, culture and speech. In doing so, this book demonstrates the value of a transnational and global perspective for understanding Ireland's history.
List of contents
Introduction: Americanisation as a framework for Irish historical studies Fionnuala Walsh; 1. Reflections on the meaning of America in Irish emigrant material culture, 1845-1925 Bernadette Whelan; 2. Marketing the transatlantic emigrant crossing: American shipping firms' influence on commercial propaganda on the Irish market Kevin Hora; 3. The spiritual empire strikes back: Americanisation and religion in Ireland, 1841-1925 Sarah Roddy; 4. Americanisation in Irish politics, c. 1850 to 1925 Niall Whelehan; 5. The literary Americanisation of Ireland 1841-1925 Ciaran O'Neill; 6. American popular visual culture and Ireland, 1840s to 1920s Kevin Rockett; 7. 'American notes': Re-thinking Irish cultural paradigms Harry White; 8. Representations of the returned Yank in the emigration to America questionnaire, 1955 Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh; Afterword: David Fitzpatrick, influencer R. F. Foster; Index.
About the author
Fionnuala Walsh is Assistant Professor in the School of History at University College Dublin and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her first monograph, Irish Women and the Great War (Cambridge, 2020) was awarded the National University of Ireland Publication Prize for Irish History and was shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society Whitfield Prize.
