1st Edition

The Irish and the American Presidency

By Nicole Anderson Yanoso Copyright 2016

    There is a widely held notion that, except for the elections of 1928 and 1960, the Irish have primarily influenced only state and local government. The Irish and the American Presidency reveals that the Irish have had a consistent and noteworthy impact on presidential careers, policies, and elections throughout American history. Using US party systems as an organizational framework, this book examines the various ways that Scots-Irish and Catholic Irish Americans, as well as the Irish who remained in eire, have shaped, altered, and sometimes driven such presidential political factors as party nominations, campaign strategies, elections, and White House policymaking.

    The Irish seem to be inextricably interwoven into important moments of presidential political history. Yanoso discusses the Scots-Irish participation in the American Revolution, the Whiskey Rebellion, and the War of 1812. She describes President Bill Clinton's successful Good Friday Agreement that brought peace and hope to Northern Ireland. And finally, she assesses the now-common presidential visits to Ireland as a strategy for garnering Irish-American support back home.

    No previous work has explored the impact of Irish and Irish-American affairs on US presidential politics throughout the entire scope of American history. Readers interested in presidential politics, American history, and/or Irish/Irish-American history are certain to find The Irish and the American Presidency enjoyable, informative, and impactful.

    Contents


    Acknowledgments

    1 Introduction

    2 The Scots-Irish Role in the Colonial Period, American Revolution, and Early Republic (1656–1824)

    3 Jacksonian Democracy, the Antebellum Period, and the Coming of the Catholic Irish to America (1824–59)

    4 The Civil War Era, Fenian Movement, and Gilded Age (1860–96)

    5 Imperialism, World War I, and the 1920s (1896–1928)

    6 World War II, the Cold War, and Irish-American Camelot (1932–68)

    7 The Late Twentieth Century to the Present (1968– )

    8 Conclusion

    Index

    Biography

    Nicole Anderson Yanoso