The Irish Catholic Diaspora in America
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
A revised and updated version of the leading history of the Irish-American experience.
"McCaffrey has been the pioneering social historian of the American Irish. This book is a survey of the territory, rethought and recast since initial publication over 20 years ago. . . . The early chapters are a very useful summary of the Irish background, and the Irish-American chapters are windows into the essential themes of this remarkable diaspora."-Prof. Charles Fanning, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
When Lawrence J. McCaffrey's The Irish Diaspora in America was published in 1976, it won rave reviews and quickly became the standard college and university text on the Irish-American experience. Named the "best short history of the Irish in America" by Andrew M. Greeley in a New York Times review, McCaffrey's work traced the experience of Irish-American Catholics from their beginnings as detested, unskilled pioneers of the urban ghetto to their rise as an essentially affluent, powerful, middle-class suburban community.
Blending his work and the contributions of other scholars, McCaffrey here adds fresh interpretations to the history of Irish American Catholics. He focuses on a number of topics, including the significance of Catholicism as the core of Irish ethnicity and the source of nativist attacks on their presence in the United States; the impact of Irish America on the course of Irish nationalism; the psychological struggle to reconcile Irish loyalties to an authoritarian religion and a liberal-democratic politics; and, more recently, the fading of the Catholic dimension of Irish identity.
"Drawing on a lifetime of reading and research, McCaffrey has written an informative, cogent and highly readable book, which includes a splendid bibliographical essay. This is a valuable contribution to Irish studies and ethnic history, one that should appeal to both scholars and the general public."-Prof. Emeritus Joseph M. Curran, Le Moyne College
"McCaffrey's book is a seminal and indispensable resource for anyone trying to understand the Irish experience in America. A seamless blend of insight and scholarship, it manages to be sweeping without every being superficial. This is a work of enduring importance."-Peter Quinn, author of Banished Children of Eve
Lawrence J. McCaffrey is professor emeritus of Loyola University of Chicago. He is the cofounder of the American Conference for Irish Studies and the author of numerous books and articles, including The Irish Question: Two Centuries of Conflict, Textures of Irish America, and Ireland from Colony to Nation State. He is frequently interviewed by the major television networks and is featured in an upcoming PBS documentary on Irish America.
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