America in Ireland - Hardcover

by Fionnuala Walsh (Editor)

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.