cover image Textures of Irish America

Textures of Irish America

Lawrence J. McCaffrey. Syracuse University Press, $39.95 (236pp) ISBN 978-0-8156-0267-5

McCaffrey, a professor of history at Loyola University of Chicago, amply documents his thesis that American urban ethnic history begins with the arrival of large numbers of Irish Catholic immigrants in the 1820s. Their descendants have contributed significantly to politics, sports and entertainment, but McCaffrey argues that Irish-Americans' material success, which took them as a group from the ghetto to middle-class prosperity, has caused a fading of Irish identity. Contemporary Irish-Americans' tendency to assimilate, their relaxed attitude toward Church authority and their under-appreciation of their cultural heritage, he contends, ``reduces the brilliance and threatens the permanence of the ethnic mosaic that has made the United States the most interesting and energetic country in the world.'' Many such challenging judgments fill this comprehensive and entertaining popular history. Illustrated. ( Aug. )