HIST 2804 Irish America

Fulfills US History requirement for History Majors. This course will focus on the history of the Irish Diaspora to America from the beginning of the colonial period to the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 and the end of the Irish Civil War the following year. The course will begin with consideration of English intervention in Ireland during the Tudor and Stuart periods, with special emphasis on how colonization and conquest in Ireland set templates for the English colonization of what became the original thirteen United States. Attention will then shift to the first wave of Ulster migration to America during the Pre-Revolutionary War period. The focus will next include Irish political refugees to the United States following the failed rebellion of 1798, and then the issue of mass immigration during the Famine of 1845-1850 and beyond. The course will conclude with the interaction between Irish Americans and Irish Nationalism during the period leading to the Easter Uprising and its aftermath. Issues to be addressed will include Irish immigrant involvement in American politics., the devotional revolution in the Roman Catholic Church, the labor movement, the womens rights movement, Irish American support for radical politics and independence in Ireland itself, and Irish American interaction with other oppressed and marginalized groups in American society.