Irish America Coming Into Clover

Old-time politics, piety, and St. Patrick's Day parades loom large when the Irish come to the American mind. None truly represents the complex legacy or contributions of the nation's oldest ethnic group, who rank among the most highly educated and affluent Americans today. InIrish America, Maureen Dezell takes a new and invigorated look at Americans of Irish Catholic ancestry who they are, and how they got that way. A welcome antidote to so many standard-issue, sentimental representations of the Irish in the United States,Irish Americafocuses on popular culture as well as politics; the Irish in the Midwest and West as well as the East; the "new Irish" immigrants; the complicated role of the Church today; and the unheralded heritage of Irish American women. Deftly weaving history, reporting, and the observations of more than 100 men and women of Irish descent on both sides of the Atlantic, Dezell presents an insightful and highly readable portrait of a people and a culture.

Maureen Dezell is a staff writer for the Boston Globe. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.