Suzanna Melendez<\/p>\n

2^{nd<\/sup> Blog Post<\/p>\n}

9\/27\/16<\/p>\n

David Sim\u2019s in depth narrative The United States in the World: A Union Forever: The Irish Question and U.S. Foreign Relations in the Victorian Age <\/em>offered a new perspective of Irish-American involvement in Ireland\u2019s nationalist movement. His scholarship not only addressed the Irish\u2019s yearn for independence but also the relationship between both counties. \u201cThough we have a number of exceptional studies of Irish America, we have few that seriously historicize Irish nationalism and its complex connections with the American Union over the long nineteenth century.\u201d(3) The framework of his book brilliantly incorporated a transnational methodology which emphasized on diplomatic history. As a historian, Sim concluded that politicians\u2019 utilized the Irish question to push America\u2019s diplomatic and political agenda. By investigating U.S. foreign relations with Ireland Sim highlighted one of many Anglo-American tensions throughout the world.<\/p>\n

Sim and Elija Gould\u2019s book Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire <\/em>have provided me with two new perspectives about the America\u2019s global position during the early nineteenth century. Previous early colonial history courses highlighted America\u2019s transatlantic relations with other nations. One key component not mentioned in those classes was the U.S.\u2019s efforts to be recognized as an independent and reliable country. The idea of national recognition by world powers was not only emphasized in Sim\u2019s text but also in Gould\u2019s political narrative. Mark_t_garcia wrote in his blog that Gould argued \u201cin order for both to gain the respect of their sovereignty they used the treaties and alliances to obtain it.\u201d Aside from the U.S trying gain global notoriety, I also learned about Irish-American relations. Prior to reading Sim\u2019s book I knew little to nothing about Irish history let alone U.S. foreign relations with Ireland. Not only was his narrative easy to understand with some exceptions concerning political figures and key events, but the accumulation of academic sources was very impressive. Some of the documents cited were newspapers, manuscripts, official government documents, letters, etc.<\/p>\n

From the perspective of U.S. diplomacy, the new republic did not want a conflict with Great Britain. Sim wrote that \u201chistorians are increasingly attentive to the continued deep cultural, material and political entanglement of the United States with British imperialism after 1783 and to the impact that this had on the new nation\u2019s foreign policy.\u201d (5) But by the mid-1840s it was evident that a great famine had swept throughout Ireland killing millions of people. One of the most interesting facts in the book was that the Irish famine sparked philanthropic activity throughout the U.S. public. \u201cThroughout the Union, citizens formed relief committees to collect and forward money, food, and clothes to Ireland. Whigs in particular were active in promoting Irish charity as a means of improving Anglo-American relations.\u201d (39-40) Compared to U.S. citizens who felt compelled to act in a philanthropic manner, politicians tried to enforce America as a nation of reliance both politically and economically.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, Sim\u2019s book provides readers with knowledge about Irish American history. Whereas many historians have overlooked the U.S. foreign relation with the Irish and their contribution to Anglo-American diplomacy, Sim\u2019s book provided readers with a detailed political context that intertwined both countries. Ireland\u2019s nationalistic efforts to gain independence relied heavily on the growing power of the American republic. The framework of the book was a bottom up approach while the context specifically focused on elite statesmen and the political intensions between both nations. Although the structure could have been organized vice versa. Furthermore, it could have focused a bit more on the social aspect of the Irish immigrants who migrated to America. In reality, they were the majority affected by the new policies implemented to ease the famine abroad and liberate them from Britain.<\/p>\n

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Suzanna Melendez 2nd Blog Post 9\/27\/16 David Sim\u2019s in depth narrative The United States in the World: A Union Forever: The Irish Question and U.S. Foreign Relations in the Victorian Age offered a new perspective of Irish-American involvement in Ireland\u2019s nationalist movement. His scholarship not only addressed the Irish\u2019s yearn for independence but also the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","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\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}