After the Flood: Irish-America, 1945-1960

Description

The essays in this volume examine diverse aspects of the Irish-American community during the postwar years and cover both the immigrant community within the US – which witnessed a surge in immigration from Ireland – and the subsequent expressions of an Irish identity among later generation ethnics. Essays consider both social and political history, such as ethnic anti-communism and American responses to Partition, and significant representations of Irish life in popular culture, such as The Last Hurrah (1956) or The Quiet Man (1952).

The study shows that the Irish-American community was lively and, in many ways, dissimilar from ‘mainstream’ American life in this period. The descendants of earlier immigrants were well aware that the culture perceived something distinctive about being Irish, and throughout this period they actively sought to define – often in deflected ways – just what that distinctiveness could mean.

About the Editors

Matthew J. O’Brien is Associate Professor of History at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. He is author of articles on Irish migration and Irish-American history in US Catholic Historian, Éire-Ireland, New Directions in Irish-American History and Etudes-Irlandaises.

James Silas Rogers is Editor of New Hibernia Review: A Record of Irish Studies and Vice President of American Conference for Irish Studies. He is the author of articles on Irish-American history and literature in US Catholic Historian, Studies and New Perspectives on the Irish Diaspora.