David Sim\u2019s A Union Forever argued that there are strong connections between and \u201cIrish question\u201d and the transnational development of America\u2019s foreign policy with Britain. Irish and Irish-American nationalists attempted to gain independence from Britain, by way of American politics, in the midst of uncertain diplomatic relations in the Victorian era (Sim 2-3).<\/p>\n

Sim used a variety of sources from letters and historical newspaper articles to presidential papers. It was especially helpful to read eyewitness perspectives of the Irish-American arrests in chapter 4. Sim stated that the prisoner\u2019s actions \u201cindicate that Irish nationalists were not passive subjects of high diplomatic negotiation. Rather, they were agents active in shaping \u2014 or at least attempting to shape \u2014 the political response to their own arrests and incarceration\u201d (Sim 118). Having said that, I think his argument could have been improved throughout the rest of the book if he had used similar sources that told more of the Irish voice. Because this book consisted of political history, there seemed to be more primary documents from the political leaders in control than the ordinary Irish or Irish-Americans involved. In the end, the Irish tried to gain concessions and independence, but did not have enough power or say to do so until 1921.<\/p>\n

I also thought there was not enough connection between Ireland\u2019s actions and the revolutionary and nationalist movements of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sim only briefly mentioned that there were other European revolutions in 1848 and around that time (Sim 71). Although this book focused specifically on Ireland\u2019s status as a potential nation, Sim did not clearly place the Irish movement in its immediate European context. Even later on, Ireland\u2019s hopes for independence were not a unique concern, as President Wilson quickly came to understand after World War One (Sim 183-184). With this background, it would be easier to determine if Irish-Americans were the only immigrants or among others agitating for their home country\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Like Janelle\u00a0<\/a> mentioned, one thing I found interesting was Sim\u2019s interpretation of American sympathy for Ireland\u2019s struggles, especially in chapter 2 (vannoyj). There was a great deal of politics involved in assisting those suffering from famine. I would add that Sim not only explained the political significance of American aid, but also the economic impact of providing assistance to a potential market. It was also viewed as \u201can opportunity to project American philanthropy and, implicitly, American power in the British archipelago\u201d (Sim 68). Even though American intervention for the Irish eventually waned going into the twentieth century, Americans had already assisted Ireland during famine and political tension, at times with a goal for economic gain.<\/p>\n

A Union Forever demonstrated once again that America was not an isolated entity in the nineteenth century. The United States was still closely tied to Great Britain but it still wanted recognition as a separate nation, which supports Gould\u2019s argument. Sim added to this by demonstrating how America had to both preserve their citizens\u2019 rights and maintain peaceful diplomatic relations with Britain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Sim\u2019s A Union Forever argued that there are strong connections between and \u201cIrish question\u201d and the transnational development of America\u2019s foreign policy with Britain. Irish and Irish-American nationalists attempted to gain independence from Britain, by way of American politics, in the midst of uncertain diplomatic relations in the Victorian era (Sim 2-3). Sim used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions\/314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}