United Irishmen, United States

by David A. Wilson

Book Overview

Among the thousands of political refugees who flooded into the United States during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, none had a greater impact on the early republic than the United Irishmen. They were, according to one Federalist, "the most God-provoking Democrats on this side of Hell." "Every United Irishman," insisted another, "ought to be hunted from the country, as much as a wolf or a tyger." David A. Wilson's lively book...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801431751
• ISBN13: 9780801431753
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 5.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Revealing book

Wilson does a very good job of putting the political turmoil of the early American Republic into a global context. The Alien and Sedition Acts of the Adams administration are put into a very different focus when viewed alongside the 1798 rising in Ireland. United Irish exiles saw the pro-English Federalist agenda in a very personal light and the bulk of them became the "most God-provoking Democrats this side of Hell" in the words of one Federalist. All too often Irish influence in American politics is dated from the Famine immigrations, a situation Wilson atempts to rectify. An interesting book for both students of early American and Irish history.

A Very Strong Effort

Wilson's take on the early Irish immigrants to America is both thought provoking and important. Some of his points are a little strong: I'm not certain that the United Irishmen can be seen as a primary reason for the downfall of the Federalist Party. Still, he backs up his assertions with reasonable facts, and in so doing certainly opens debate on the matter. He does a fine job of showing both the radical nature of these immigrants as well as their scattered geographic nature (Denis Driscol, who became editor of the Augusta [Georgia] Chronicle is a perfect example of both). Wilson's book also emphasizes the Irishness of the United Irishmen, a point which should not be overlooked, given how the Dissenters in Ireland were appropriated by the establishment after 1798, and how modern America wants to emphasize the "Scots-Irishness" of the Dissenters. Wilson reveals these men as truly IRISH in thought and action.