ipl-logo

James R. Barrett's The Irish Way

594 Words3 Pages

Irish integration to America was a very important part of the immigration history of this nation. James R. Barrett, professor at the University of Illinois, writes The Irish Way: Becoming American in the Multiethnic City, an account of the story of second and third generation Irish immigrants whose experiences in America changed their lives in more ways than they could have imagined. The book primarily focused on the social history through; their shaky relationship with African Americans, politics and “The Machine”, religious opposition from other immigrants, and their strife in the workplace. Thoroughly developed with illustrations and facts, this book provides new insight into the topic of “Americanization” among immigrants coming to our nation. …show more content…

That is exactly what millions of Irish immigrants did when left with no choice but to leave their Irish homelands due to the famine that plagued them from the time of 1845-1852. James R. Barrett describes the struggle and changes the Irish people needed to make when coming to America and their hard attempts to disperse themselves into the multiethnic cities of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and many more. The integration of the immigrant people rested on the responsibility of the ever present Irish. To the new immigrants it seemed as if the Irish people were everywhere. They were constantly “…encountering Irish policemen, Irish politicians, Irish bureaucrats, Irish saloon keepers, Irish contractors, and Irish teachers…” (pg. 2). They were known to hold the power of the newer immigrants. The Irish, being skilled speakers, instantly rose in the political areas. They ran the integration of other immigrants and held this power simply due to their populous numbers and skilled natively English

Show More
Related

  • Scotch-Irish Research Paper

    415 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pleased, Presbyterian, and eager, the Scotch-Irish significantly influenced the districts they possessed. They were a beautiful gathering of individuals who made our national character.

    Read More

  • Scots-Irish Research Paper

    564 Words  | 3 Pages

    The oppressive past that the Scots-Irish faced in their home country optimalized the isolated geography of the Greater Appalachian region, as they were able to construct a society that was rooted in individual liberty as opposed to materialism. When living in Great Britain, the Scots-Irish were forced out due to a large increase in rent put upon by the landlords. As noted by a Scot-Irish in American Nations, “We having been, before we came here, so much oppressed and harassed by under landlords in our country, from which we with great losses, dangers, and difficulties came [to]... this foreign world to be freed from such oppression” (Woodard 104). Thus, as evidenced, the Borderlanders travelled to the New World in search of a life free of oppression.

    Read More

  • Irish Dbq Essay

    1903 Words  | 8 Pages

    When Catholic emancipation failed, the dam broke. Revolution became the only option for the repressed in Ireland to achieve the equality that they now believed was an inalienable right. The decades of enlightenment ideas that had been flooding in from America and France finally came to a head in 1798 when the Irish attempted their own rebellion. However, it was not just American and French ideas that lead Ireland to war, the history is much more conjoined that that. Without the historical event of the American Revolution, Ireland would never have developed the national pride that was needed to attempt a

    Read More

  • The Uprooted By Oscar Handlin: Chapter Analysis

    506 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Second Industrial Revolution presented many hardships to immigrants looking for a better life in America. In his book, The Uprooted, Oscar Handlin makes the case for immigrants enduring the hardships adjusting to the American culture and economy. His argument is supported by specific statistics and events that damaged these people. These newcomers’ ideas, beliefs, and cultures were affected as well. Immigrants faced with American culture and commerce had to adjust their own in order to survive.

    Read More

  • Assimilation In Marilyn Chin's Trying To Find Chinatown

    1686 Words  | 7 Pages

    Assimilation is usually meant to indicate what happens to immigrants in a new land. However, “rejection, loneliness, discrimination—these were the byproducts of living in the United States” (Ghymn 37). In Marilyn Chin’s essay on assimilation “How I Got That Name,” the speaker acquaints the readers how she got the American name “Marilyn.” The tension between the two cultures is evident, for the speaker is treated as “Model Minority.” Her race and ethnicity define her; in fact, the stereotypes inscribed with her race restricted and cage her significance in the society.

    Read More

  • The Great Famine Of 1845: From Irish Migration To America

    322 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story of how and why the Irish came and thrived in America is as long and tragic as all the other sad stories of all the immigrants to the America 's that make her what it is today. The Irish began to immigrate to the United States long before the Great Famine of 1845. Between the years of 1650 and 1922 some 5 million Irish immigrated to the Americas with the first recorded St. Patrick 's Day celebrated in 1762. There were so many Irish-Scottish immigrates and settlers around the 1700 's that the log cabin became a symbol that represented them as a people. By 1833, there were an estimated 40,000 Irish immigrants making it the largest Irish city in the world.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Repressive Tolerance

    994 Words  | 4 Pages

    As a result of their emigration, America was now viewed as “multiethnic and multiracial” and “defined in terms of culture and creed” (Huntington 1). On the contrary, when people traveled across the border from Mexico, their culture was not so widely accepted. Mexican traditions and values were seen as a “serious challenge to America’s traditional identity” (Huntington 2). The “original settlers” of America were incredibly open to people travelling from Europe, but when people came from Latin America, they were

    Read More

  • A Critique Of Black History Month By Richard Rodriguez

    518 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author, Rodriguez, introduces his audience to the reality of the process of Americanization: regardless of origin, one cannot inhibit the power of indoctrination of the American culture. One may derive from a primarily Mexican, Middle Eastern, or say, Pacific Islander heritage, however, the “majority culture” in the region of residence is what will soon come to define an individual. Hence why Rodriguez propagates that we all have a little Chinese within us. Rodriguez establishes his ethos as a renowned expert and speaker in the process of Americanization. He then introduces the fear that is often exhibited by the older generations – the loss of distinct heritage among our youth.

    Read More

  • Immigrants Fight For Acceptance Essay

    933 Words  | 4 Pages

    These children are just fighting to be apart of their new world; they are fighting for acceptance as Americans. Although the American dream, in a traditional sense, is the guiding ethos of immigrants striving for success in a new country, in the stories Two Kinds,Who’s Irish, and Children of Loneliness ,the American

    Read More

  • Irish American Culture Essay

    501 Words  | 3 Pages

    After having spent nearly two months in Cork, Ireland, this semester, I have noticed striking similarities between the Irish and the Irish-American communities in my hometown. Having no Irish heritage myself, I had previously assumed the identity was mostly concerned with the consumption of Guinness and lively laughter in pubs. In part, I have come to find that it most certainly does (with the exception of Guinness being replaced with Murphy’s in Cork). However, I have also come to recognize that Irish heritage, especially in America, instead encapsulates love and acceptance largely beyond that of American culture alone. To be Irish is to welcome others, regardless of origin, and to love greatly despite setbacks.

    Read More

  • Essay On African American Immigration

    948 Words  | 4 Pages

    Francis Scott Key, in 1814, called America “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” and this motto was heard by people from other countries. These people decided to leave behind their old lives in order to escape their native countries for various reasons. Some of these reasons include overpopulation, unhappiness, and oppression. Immigrants risked everything to come to the United States of America in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, however immigrants experienced dangerous journeys, anti-immigrant ideas, and harsh experiences in US immigration stations.

    Read More

  • Group Work In Canada

    1928 Words  | 8 Pages

    These early groups helped the immigrant boys acculturate into the American mainstream, and the settlement houses also served as a social center for their parents” (p. 181). This study referred to the diverse community that immigrated to Chicago from various European countries in the 1980s and how these newcomers found comfort in a new and strange land by attending group work

    Read More

  • Ancient Ireland Research Paper

    1400 Words  | 6 Pages

    C. 7,500 B.C. The first humans land in Ireland myths has it they were magical beings they were known as “Tuatha de Danaans” fairy mythology goes that they used to transform into fairies. They live by hunting, fishing and gathering plants. C. 4,000 B.C. The first farmers arrive in Ireland who introduced pottery.

    Read More

  • Irish Rebellions In Ireland In The 1800s

    271 Words  | 2 Pages

    Likewise, because of the hatred for the Irish, the Act of Union enacted by The Irish and the British parliament in spite of there were many oppositions in 1800. In 1801, the Act of Union was enforced, its contents were these. The first, Ireland will be a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and join into it as a single country. Next, Irish parliament will be abolished

    Read More

  • James Joyce's Dubliners: A Literary Analysis

    1114 Words  | 5 Pages

    Like many important artistic works of the early twentieth century (the paintings of Joyce 's contemporary Wassily Kandinsky, for instance, or Louis Armstrong 's music), Dubliners appears deceptively simple and direct at first, especially compared with James Joyce 's later works of fiction: A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake. It is certainly his most accessible book — relatively easy to comprehend and follow, whereas the others mentioned tend to challenge even the most sophisticated reader. It was in Dubliners that Joyce developed his storytelling muscles, honing the nuts-and-bolts craftsmanship that would make the high modern art of A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake viable. In Dubliners, he does not yet employ the techniques of mimetic narrative (characteristic of A Portrait) or stream-of-consciousness (Ulysses), but he paves the way here for those technical breakthroughs. Dubliners is somewhat comparable

    Read More

More about James R. Barrett's The Irish Way

Open Document