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David Sims uncovers that Irish studies have not explored a connection between Irish nationalism and the United States as he writes, “Though we have a number of exceptional studies of Irish America, we have a few that seriously historicize Irish nationalism and its complex connections with the American Union over the long nineteenth century.” (p. 2). This book attempts to fill this gap is the historiography. A Union Forever The Irish Question and U.S. Foreign Relations in the Victorian Age marks how the United States dealt with foreign policy through a transnational approach. Sims methodology continues to build off Gould’s argument of the United States desire to gain respect in the global community. Responding to the Irish question, U.S. Whig and Republican statesmen took an opportunity to act against global dependency and promote American ideals. Sims states, “Both were committed of freeing the United States form what they saw as it commercial dependency of Great Britain, and to this end, both promoted the “American System”, an interlocking cluster of economic policies including development of internal communications, a protective tariff for domestic industries, and the cultivation of market for domestically produced goods.” (p. 9) American statesmen were able promote the “American System” with the response to the Irish famine. Great Britain was not able to fully respond to the famine and depended on American agricultural to help feed Ireland thus promoting American produced goods in the global market. Consecutively this helped generate sympathy to Irish Americans which would help power their aspirations for Irish independence.
The United States was able to exercise a transnational approach to foreign policy through Irish American expatriates in Ireland. Expatriates in Ireland were subject to British law and their U.S. naturalization was disregarded. Sim explains about British rule, “… they asserted a doctrine of perpetual allegiance, stating that those born under the jurisdiction of British Crown remained it subjects. British law assigned no value to the adoption of U.S. citizenship.” (p. 98) The British “perpetual allegiance” reshaped the “legal construction of citizenship” of naturalized Irish Americans. Indirectly this provided support to Irish Americans and positioned the United States to respond to Great Britain on naturalization. The United Stated responded with the 1868 Expatriation Act which brought Great Britain and the United States to a settlement on the issue of naturalized citizens. This strengthened U.S. foreign policy, as an example to the global community, gained respect among nations through a transnational approach. Conversely, after reaching the agreement with Great Britain support of Irish Americans for Irish independence began to dwindle. Overall, the settlement between the two nations supports Sims argument that America obtained transnationalism and added to the historiography of Irish nationalism connection to the United States.
One issue I have is Sims could have provided a better background with the Irish question by connecting it to the “Age of Revolution” just as andrewjarralkelly stated in his response and added to the “Age of Revolution” narrative. Sims used an assortment of sources including manuscripts, newspapers, journals, and government files in the United States and Great Britain to name a few. I have not studied much on Irish American history but overall I liked this book and it helped fill in my own personal gaps with Irish Americans history.