Irish America: Coming Into Clover

Old-time politics, piety, and St. Patrick’s Day parades loom large when the Irish
come to the American mind. None truly represents the complex legacy or contributions
of the nation’s oldest ethnic group, who rank among the most highly educated and
affluent Americans today.

In Irish America, Maureen Dezell takes a new and invigorating look at Americans of Irish Catholic ancestry-who they are, and how they got that
way. A welcome antidote to so many standard-issue, sentimental representations of
the Irish in the United States, Irish America focuses on popular culture as well
as politics; the Irish in the Midwest and West as well as the East; the new Irish

immigrants; the complicated role of the Church today; and the unheralded heritage
of Irish American women. Deftly weaving history, reporting, and the observations
of more than 100 men and women of Irish descent on both sides of the Atlantic, Dezell
presents an insightful and highly readable portrait of a people and a culture.