Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Many of the socially marginalized Irish immigrant women of this era made their living in domestic service. In contrast to immigrant men, who might have lived in a community with their fellow Irish, these women lived and worked in close contact with American families. Lynch-Brennan reveals the essential role this unique relationship played in shaping the place of the Irish in America today. Such women were instrumental in making the Irish presence more acceptable to earlier established American groups. At the same time, it was through the experience of domestic service that many Irish were acculturated, as these women absorbed the middle-class values of their patrons and passed them on to their own children. Drawing on personal correspondence and other primary sources, Lynch-Brennan gives voice to these young Irish women and celebrates their untold contribution to the ethnic history of the United States. In addition, recognizing the interest of scholars in contemporary domestic services, she devotes one chapter to comparing "Bridget's" experience to that of other ethnic women over time in domestic service in America.
Synopsis
"Bridget" was the Irish immigrant servant girl who worked in American homes from the second half of the nineteenth century into the early years of the twentieth. She is widely known as a pop culture clich the young girl who wreaked havoc in middle-class American homes. Now, in the first book-length treatment of the topic, Margaret Lynch-Brennan tells the real story of such Irish domestic servants, providing a richly detailed portrait of their lives and experiences. Drawing on personal correspondence and other primary sources, Lynch-Brennan gives voice to these young Irish women and celebrates their untold contribution to the ethnic history of the United States. In addition, recognizing the interest of scholars in contemporary domestic service, she devotes one chapter to comparing "Bridget's" experience to that of other ethnic women over time in domestic service in America.
Synopsis
"Densely documented with personal accounts, drawing on interviews and letters to let the women tell their own stories. As the first full-length scholarly book on female Irish servants, it will be a valuable text for educators."-American Historical Review "Provides fresh glimpses into the working world and the social world that Irish domestic servants constructed and inhabited in the United States. . . . Lynch-Brennan's well-written work will be warmly welcomed by historians of Irish America and those interested in the experiences of immigrant women in the United States."-Journal of American History