Becoming Irish American

Timothy J. Meagher was associate professor of history at Catholic University of America and the curator of American Catholic History Collections. He is the author of The Columbia Guide to Irish American History. He lives in Washington, DC.

“Subtly provocative. . . . [Meagher] traces the making and remaking of Irish America through several iterations and shows the impact of religion on each.”—Terry Golway, Wall Street Journal“A sweeping work of American history that tells the story of the transformative encounter between America and the Irish, and how that encounter altered them both. Meagher shows that the America that elected John F. Kennedy can be seen as the culmination of a process which began in the seventeenth century, marked by the influx of women and men from Ireland who staked out their place in a society that did not always want them.”—Hasia Diner, coauthor of Immigration: An American History“Americans with Irish roots have played essential roles in the long drama of American history. Timothy Meagher fills his vivid narrative with rich insights about their religion, politics, work, and culture—and keeps one eye fixed on what was happening in the Ould Sod. This is the best book on the Irish-American past that has ever been written.”—Michael Kazin, author of What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party“In this sweeping historical narrative, Tim Meagher shows that Irish immigrants in America neither replicated old world traits nor conformed to a pattern of inevitable assimilation but, instead, created something distinctively and dynamically new.”—Kevin Kenny, New York University