One thing that infallibly determines the quality of a book is the idiocy of those inclined to negatively review its content. This book proves that rule with particular emphasis, as can be seen right here. Noel Ignatiev's book "How the Irish Became White" uses the methods of the new historians of labor in America, who acknowledge as must be done that race segmented class and became part of it, and that the unity of the working class in struggle against capital in America is a historical lie. To the best extent possible given the often scant material, he applies this methodology to the case of the Irish, in particular in Philadelphia.
As Ignatiev shows, race is a social construct, and it was therefore at the time by no means 'obvious' that the Irish were white, as would be the case now according to these classifications. On the contrary, the Irish were especially from the time of the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1855) on desperately poor laborers, which at the time meant they were not likely to be seen as white. So the Irish had to become white, through struggle of their own. This was only possible by participating in the oppression of the class automatically put on the lowest rank of the urban ladder, the black workers. Whether slave or freeman, the Irish hated, despised, and persecuted them, and in the cauldron of this racial antagonism, the Irish working class was bleached white in the eyes of the ruling class.
The usual arguments about the relations of race and class in America are shown to be fallacious. Black workers were not strikebreakers per se, but had to become strikebreakers because they were systematically excluded by the Irish unions. Whenever the black population organized itself and formed its independent spheres of power, the Irish attempted to destroy these. The Irish vigorously supported slavery and the Southern cause, only going so far as to reject secession, which would leave them on their own facing Northern capital. When the Civil War increasingly turned toward the cause of abolition, the Irish of New York City revolted in one of the 19th Century's greatest riots. No black worker was even permitted to work alongside an Irish one by the latter, or they would strike on the spot or leave their job.
This is not because the Irish were or are inclined to evil or prejudice more than anyone else. It is precisely because the Irish were the most despised of all 'free' labor, and yet were exalted above the blacks. As Ignatiev showed, in late 18th Century Ireland itself, even very poor Protestant Irish considered themselves racially superior to the Catholic Irish. Their feelings of superiority were precisely all they had, and the British did all they could to encourage it, since division within a class greatly eased their occupation. The same phenomenon prevailed in America, only there unity was actually impossible, since the blacks had been brought to America involuntarily whereas all others were voluntary settlers. This incompatibility of viewpoint made the citizenship status of blacks dubious from the very start of the existence of the American Colonies, and as a result, the blacks were not opportunistically, but permanently consigned to the lowest rank within American labor (with Native Americans for the most part excluded from these ranks altogether). For any settler to prove himself 'white', it then became necessary to partake in and support this system.
Not so therefore the popular social-democratic myth that capital managed to conspire to divide the workers, or confused them to their 'true' interests. Although they would have been better off united, the very foundations of the American state were laid on the basis of this racial division. As long as America was and remains founded upon it, original African-American workers as a racial class could and can never advance beyond the lowest rung of the ladder, nor could and can Hispanics or the original Asian immigrants. Conversely, no settler or his descendant could or can fall to that level unless they are willing to reject the mess of pottage called 'whiteness' for which they have exchanged their birthright of equality and solidarity among the working class. As Ignatiev shows, in the 19th Century, the number of such workers was very few indeed. Are there more now? Then let them show themselves.
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Top reviews from other countries
Liam Kelleher
A really interesting thesis on the early struggles and thoughts of Irish Americans
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 25, 2022John Connolly
An excellent study in studying human behavior of the human race ...
Reviewed in Canada on May 24, 2015Jane Bushby
Inelegant bu interesting writing.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2021