Transatlantic Connections: Ireland and America since 1920

(4 Credits)

This course examines the history of Ireland (including Northern Ireland), the United States, and significantly Irish America, as they intersect or diverge over the course of the twentieth century. When Northern Ireland was created in 1920 and the Irish Free State in 1922, there were 2.3 million Irish-born living in America, nearly half the population of the entire island. A new phase in Irish-American relations began during which diplomacy, economics, education, immigration, nationalism, tourism, culture, philanthropy and the circulatory movement of capital emerged as major arenas for interaction. Through readings, films, oral history and discussions that highlight the comparative element of this course, students will examine key themes that connect Ireland and the United States in this period as well as interrogating an emerging historiography.