Diaspora and Comparison: The Global Irish as a Case Study

If a single theme has dominated the historiography of the United States in the last decade, it is the need to extend the boundaries of inquiry beyond the nation-state, to internationalize the subject and render it more cosmopolitan. Placing American history in a global context was a central initiative of the Organization of American Historians (OAH) in the late 1990s, with the Journal of American History. devoting several round tables and special issues to the topic. In 1999 the annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA) took as its theme “Diasporas and Migaretion in History,” and at the 2001 meeting AHA president Eric Foner added a global dimension to his ongoing investigation into the history of American freedom. Under the auspices of the OAH, Thomas Bender directed a four-year collaborative effort culminating in the recent publication of a manifesto on teaching, training, and faculty development, the La Pietra Report, and a seminal collection of essays, Rethinking American History in a Global Age. One might confidently expect that American immigration and ethnicity, which by definition have an international dimension, would fit comfortably into this newly emerging framework. Yet there is confusion over the appropriate perspective and methodology. This essay seeks to delineate an approach suited to the history of one prominent migrant group, the Irish, but the issues at stake are central to American immigration history as a whole.1