This is a book about Irish nationalism and how Irish nationalists developed their own conception of the Irish race. Bruce Nelson begins with an exploration of the discourse of race - from the nineteenth - century belief that 'race is everything' to the more recent argument that there are no races. He focuses on how English observers constructed the 'native' and Catholic Irish as uncivilized and savage, and on the racialization of the Irish in the nineteenth century, especially in Britain and the United States, where Irish immigrants were often portrayed in terms that had been applied mainly to enslaved Africans and their descendants. Most of the book focuses on how the Irish created their own identity - in the context of slavery and abolition, empire, and revolution. Since the Irish were a dispersed people, this process unfolded not only in Ireland, but in the United States, Britain, Australia, South Africa, and other countries. Many nationalists were determined to repudiate anything that could interfere with the goal of building a united movement aimed at achieving full independence for Ireland. But others, including men and women who are at the heart of this study, believed that the Irish struggle must create a more inclusive sense of Irish nationhood and stand for freedom everywhere. Nelson pays close attention to this argument within Irish nationalism, and to the ways it resonated with nationalists worldwide, from India to the Caribbean.
| ISBN | 0691153124 | | Pages | 348 | | ISBN13 | 9780691153124
(What's this?) | | Weight (grammes) | 657 | | Publisher | Princeton University Press | | Published in | New Jersey | | Imprint | Princeton University Press | | Height (mm) | 229 | | Format | Hardback | | Width (mm) | 152 | | Publication date | 23 Apr 2012 | | Spine width (mm) | 28 | | DEWEY | 941.5 | | Academic level | Tertiary education, Professional / Scholarly | | DEWEY edition | DC23 | |
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List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Part 1. The Making of the Irish Race Prologue: Arguing about (the Irish) Race 3 Chapter 1. "The blood of an Irishman": The English Construction of the Irish Race, 1534?1801 17 Chapter 2. Celts, Hottentots, and "white chimpanzees": The Racialization of the Irish in the Nineteenth Century 30 Part 2. Ireland, Slavery, and Abolition Chapter 3. "Come out of such a land, you Irishmen": Daniel O?Connell, American Slavery, and the Making of the Irish Race 57 Chapter 4. "The Black O?Connell of the United States": Frederick Douglass and Ireland 86 Part 3. Ireland and Empire Chapter 5. "From the Cabins of Connemara to the Kraals of Kaffirland": Irish Nationalists, the British Empire, and the "Boer Fight for Freedom" 121 Chapter 6. "Because we are white men": Erskine Childers, Jan Christian Smuts, and the Irish Quest for Self-Government, 1899-1922 148 Part 4. Ireland and Revolution Chapter 7. Negro Sinn F?iners and Black Fenians: "Heroic Ireland" and the Black Nationalist Imagination 181 Chapter 8. "The Irish are for freedom everywhere": Eamon de Valera, the Irish Patriotic Strike, and the"?last white nation ... deprived of its liberty" 212 Epilogue: The Ordeal of the Irish Republic 242 Notes 259 Index 323
This is ... a most impressive study, not only for its breathtaking scope and Nelson's command of such vast and varied scholarship but for pointing to many unexplored directions for future comparative and transnational studies. This book is a welcome addition to the literature on Irish nationalism and on the construction of group identity. -- Patrick Furlong Nationalism and Ethnic Politics Nelson's book is a timely chronology of the quest by both foreigners and the Irish themselves to define and redefine race and identity. -- Lar Joye History Ireland Irish Nationalists and the Making of the Irish Race is ... a wide-ranging work rooted in large volumes of both primary and secondary sources. It succeeds in broadening our understanding of Irish identity by digging up new and interesting intellectual connections between Irish nationalists and the outside world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. -- Cian McMahon New Hibernia Review The whole book ... rests on a solid base of original research and analysis. Even when we may be familiar in outline with some of the incidents [Nelson] recounts ... this book enriches our understanding. -- Patrick Maume Irish Historical Studies
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