Rutgers University Press

The Irish in New Jersey
Four Centuries of American Life

Dermot Quinn

Since Irish immigrants began settling in New Jersey during the seventeenth century, they have made a sizable impact on the state's history and development. As the budding colony struggled to establish a distinguishable identity for itself in the New World, its Irish citizens were forced to grapple with issues of their own: What did it mean to be Irish American, and what role would "Irishness" play in the creation of an American identity?

In this fascinating and richly illustrated history, Dermot Quinn calls upon a remarkable treasury of photographs and newspaper clippings that uncover the story of how the Irish of New Jersey maintained their proud heritage while also embracing their role in laying the foundations for the social, economic, political, and religious landscapes of the country they now called home.

Featuring a wealth of local anecdotes, sermons, diary entries, and brief biographical sketches, as well as early census statistics and scholarly references, this well-written and thoroughly researched volume will appeal to historians and general readers alike. Quinn vividly chronicles the emigration of many families from a war-torn and famine-stricken country to the new and unfamiliar land whose discriminatory policies and unwelcoming streets often fell all too short of being paved with gold.
The Irish in New Jersey tells many harrowing tales of poverty and struggles to adapt, as the Irish contended with anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudice. Using case histories of individuals and of the cities of Paterson, Jersey City, and Newark, Quinn explores the troubled transition of the Irish from a rejected minority toward a middle class, secular, and suburban identity. He also explores the promotion of "Irishness" by means of cultural productions like the famed Riverdance and the annual Saint Patrick's Day Parade, noting how each reflects the fluidity and malleability of Irish American identity. The Irish in New Jersey will appeal to everyone with an interest in the unique cultural heritage of a proud and accomplished people.

Dermot Quinn is an associate professor of history at Seton Hall University. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin and New College, Oxford, he is author of Patronage and Piety: English Roman Catholics and Politics, 1850-1900 and Understanding Northern Ireland.

Cloth ISBN 0-8135-3421-6
Pages: 288 pp. 7 x 10, 181 illus.
Price: $26.95 (Excluding: Sales tax)
Messy Beginnings: Postcoloniality and Early American Studies

Malini Johar Schueller, Edward Watts, eds.

Description: The first collection to focus the lens of postcolonial theory on pre-twentieth-century America

Praise for Messy Beginnings

"Messy Beginnings offers a corrective to business as usual in postcolonial studies and is a welcome contribution to the field."-Russ Castronovo, author of Necro Citizenship: Death, Eroticism, and the Public Sphere in the Nineteenth-Century United States

When scholars imagine American postcolonialism, they think either of contemporary multiculturalism or imperialism since 1898. This narrow view has left more than the two prior centuries of colonizing literary and political culture unexamined.
Messy Beginnings challenges the idea of early America's immunity from issues of imperialism and of its separation from European colonialism. By addressing a range of literary texts and examining the work of key postcolonial theorists, the contributors to this volume explore the applicability of such models to early American culture. They argue against the idea that the colonization of what became the United States was simply a confrontation between European culture and a singular "other." Their analyses reveal that the formation of America resulted from messy or unstable negotiations of the idea of "nation."

The essays in this book forcefully show that the development of "Americanness" was a raced and classed phenomenon, achieved through a complex series of violent encounters, legal maneuvers, and political compromises. The complexity of early American colonization, where there was not one coherent "nation" to conquer, contradicts the simple label of imperialism used in other lands.

Malini Johar Schueller is a professor of English at the University of Florida and author of US Orientalisms: Race, Nation, and Gender in Literature, 1790-1890.

Edward Watts is an associate professor of American thought and language at Michigan State University and author of An American Colony: Regionalism and the Roots of Midwestern Culture.

Price: $26.00 (Excluding: Sales tax)
Paper ISBN 0-8135-3233-7
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-3232-9
Pages: 256 pp.

The New Anthology of American Poetry, Vol. 1
Volume One: Traditions and Revolutions, Beginnings to 1900

Edited by Steven Gould Axelrod, Camille Roman, and Thomas Travisano

The first of a three-volume series that will be the most comprehensive and innovative anthology of American poetry ever published.

Praise for The New Anthology of American Poetry
"By embracing the guiding principle of ‘traditions and revolutions,’ the editors of this marvelous anthology have produced a rich, exciting text that surprises, engages, and challenges readers like no other such book has done. Its thoughtful inclusiveness, lucid introductions, and helpful notes make it supremely teachable. This work establishes a new benchmark for poetry anthologies."—Emory Elliott, editor, The Columbia Literary History of the United States

The New Anthology of American Poetry
* Demonstrates how a succession of canons of American poetry have evolved.
* Gives more attention to women poets and to artists from African American, Asian American, Latino, and Native American cultures than in any previous anthology.
* Offers concise introductions to periods and styles, brief bibliographies of key primary and secondary texts, and critical selections on the art of poetry by the poets themselves.

VOLUME ONE: Traditions and Revolutions, Beginnings to 1900
Volume I begins with a generous selection of Native American materials, then spans the years from the establishment of the American colonies to about 1900, a world on the brink of World War I and the modern era. Part One focuses on poetry from the very beginnings through the end of the eighteenth century. The expansion and development of a newly forged nation engendered new kinds of poetry. Part Two includes works from the early nineteenth century through the time of the Civil War. The poems in Part Three reflect the many issues affecting a nation undergoing tumultuous change: the Civil War, immigration, urbanization, industrialization, and cultural diversification. It also includes poems and songs reflecting the experiences of a variety of racial and ethnic groups.

Steven Gould Axelrod is a professor of English at the University of California Riverside. He is the author of Robert Lowell: Life and Art and Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words. Camille Roman is an associate professor of English and American studies at Washington State University. She is one of the editors of The Women and Language Debate: A Sourcebook (Rutgers University Press) and the author of Elizabeth Bishop’s World War II–Cold War View. Thomas Travisano is a professor of English at Hartwick College. He is the author of Elizabeth Bishop: Her Artistic Development and Midcentury Quartet: Bishop, Lowell, Jarrell, Berryman, and the Making of a Postmodern Aesthetic.Price: $35.00 (Excluding: Sales tax)

Paper ISBN 0-8135-3162-4
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-3161-6
Pages: 688 pp.
Paperback $35.00
Cloth - $75.00

May 18, 2004