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Under the Starry Flag: How a Band of Irish Americans Joined the Fenian Revolt and Sparked a Crisis Over Citizenship
In 1867, 40 Irish American freedom fighters, outfitted with guns and ammunition, sailed to Ireland to join the effort to end British rule. Yet they never got a chance to fight. British authorities arrested them for treason as soon as they landed, sparking an international conflict that dragged the United States and Britain to the brink of war.
The Fenians, as the freedom fighters were called, claimed American citizenship. British authorities disagreed, insisting that naturalized Irish Americans remained British subjects. Following in the wake of the Civil War, the Fenian crisis dramatized anew the idea of citizenship as an inalienable right, as natural as freedom of speech and religion. The case of the Fenians, Lucy E. Salyer shows, led to landmark treaties and laws acknowledging the right of exit.
The small ruckus created by these impassioned Irish Americans provoked a human rights revolution that is not, even now, fully realized. Placing Reconstruction-era debates over citizenship within a global context, Under the Starry Flag raises important questions about citizenship and immigration.
The book is published by Harvard University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
The Fenians, as the freedom fighters were called, claimed American citizenship. British authorities disagreed, insisting that naturalized Irish Americans remained British subjects. Following in the wake of the Civil War, the Fenian crisis dramatized anew the idea of citizenship as an inalienable right, as natural as freedom of speech and religion. The case of the Fenians, Lucy E. Salyer shows, led to landmark treaties and laws acknowledging the right of exit.
The small ruckus created by these impassioned Irish Americans provoked a human rights revolution that is not, even now, fully realized. Placing Reconstruction-era debates over citizenship within a global context, Under the Starry Flag raises important questions about citizenship and immigration.
The book is published by Harvard University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
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First published October 15, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 22, 2021
The book covers a much broader story than the title would suggest. Plenty of detail is provided on some Irish-American's participation in raid into Ireland during the mid 1800s. However, the book also addresses the notions of citizenship, expatriation, and the ability of an individual to select his or her own citizenship. Interesting presentation is included of diplomacy between the US and the UK (and German states) leading to treaties recognizing expatriation rights.
August 6, 2021
Not so much a book as it is an unfocused thesis from a lower tier liberal arts college without any tenured history professors but with 17 full time grievance studies cultists of every imaginable stripe.
The slim 224 pages are mind-numbingly dense. Every other line is interrupted with citation marks - never leading to an interesting footnote, just to a dull and extensive list of 'sources' which only serve to bulk up the page count by 40% .
The constant need to shoehorn in quotes and 'see how hard I worked' citations keep any narrative from developing and every decision made by people a century and a half ago is filtered through the authors modern eyes and judged on race and gender lines rather than merely presented as factual occurrences about which the readers could draw their own conclusions or - if the egotistic author simply must include their precious thoughts and feelings a concluding essay could have been appended. Interspersing feels everywhere degrades any value that the work might have had and reduces it to mere kindling or cage liner.
Even worse is the glaring blind spots that exist - those things that deserve comment but draw none. Example - It is a presented as fact that Fenians sailed to Ireland with the intent to start a revolution. Upon being arrested every man who didn't turn informer lied his ass off both in court and in public proclamations, denying that they had any such intention. The lack of remark (since she has no problem on commenting upon so many other things) obviously means the author thinks lies in service to political ends are perfectly acceptable.
Finally, the authors red diaper shows when in the epilogue she explicitly refers to the 'long march of history' and 'individual rights trumping states rights', outing the entire work as communist propaganda unworthy of serious consideration.
The slim 224 pages are mind-numbingly dense. Every other line is interrupted with citation marks - never leading to an interesting footnote, just to a dull and extensive list of 'sources' which only serve to bulk up the page count by 40% .
The constant need to shoehorn in quotes and 'see how hard I worked' citations keep any narrative from developing and every decision made by people a century and a half ago is filtered through the authors modern eyes and judged on race and gender lines rather than merely presented as factual occurrences about which the readers could draw their own conclusions or - if the egotistic author simply must include their precious thoughts and feelings a concluding essay could have been appended. Interspersing feels everywhere degrades any value that the work might have had and reduces it to mere kindling or cage liner.
Even worse is the glaring blind spots that exist - those things that deserve comment but draw none. Example - It is a presented as fact that Fenians sailed to Ireland with the intent to start a revolution. Upon being arrested every man who didn't turn informer lied his ass off both in court and in public proclamations, denying that they had any such intention. The lack of remark (since she has no problem on commenting upon so many other things) obviously means the author thinks lies in service to political ends are perfectly acceptable.
Finally, the authors red diaper shows when in the epilogue she explicitly refers to the 'long march of history' and 'individual rights trumping states rights', outing the entire work as communist propaganda unworthy of serious consideration.
June 10, 2025
All you people wearing Kiss Me I'm Irish shirts have got nothing on these guys
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews