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Loading... Making Sense of the Molly Maguires (original 1998; edition 1998)by Kevin Kenny
Work InformationMaking Sense of the Molly Maguires by Kevin Kenny (1998)
Labor History (41) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is a magisterial analysis of the events surrounding the Molly Maguires, an episode of labor unrest in Pennsylvania in the middle of the nineteenth century. Kenny brings to bear an immense knowledge of Ireland and its history as he traces the fates of these Irish immigrants in the coal fields of Pennsylvania. The story is fraught with drama, with elements of class, ethnic, and religious conflict, as well as political aspects regarding the Civil War. All these fragments remain in play as Kenny skillfully leads the reader through the various possibilities. ( ) no reviews | add a review
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Twenty Irish immigrants, suspected of belonging to a secret terrorist organization called the Molly Maguires, were executed in Pennsylvania in the 1870s for the murder of sixteen men. Ever since, there has been enormous disagreement over who the Molly Maguires were, what they did, and why they did it, as virtually everything we now know about the Molly Maguires is based on the hostile descriptions of their contemporaries. Arguing that such sources are inadequate to serve as the basis for a factual narrative, author Kevin Kenny examines the ideology behind contemporary evidence to explain how and why a particular meaning came to be associated with the Molly Maguires in Ireland and Pennsylvania. At the same time, this work examines new archival evidence from Ireland that establishes that the American Molly Maguires were a rare transatlantic strand of the violent protest endemic in the Irish countryside. Combining social and cultural history, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires offers a new explanation of who the Molly Maguires were, as well as why people wrote and believed such curious things about them. In the process, it vividly retells one of the classic stories of American labor and immigration. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)364.10609748Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Criminology Crimes and OffensesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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