Arensberg, Kimball and de Valera

A story of sex and censorship

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5823944
AutoresAnne Byrne (Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway), Erin O’sullivan (0000-0002-4602-4628, Trinity College Dublin, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen27
Número3
Páginas227-250
Fecha de publicación2019-06-19
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaIrish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0791-6035 • E-ISSN: 2050-5280
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0791603519855860
OpenAlexW2952116712
IdiomaDE
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas9

A curious Irish-American 'international incident' occurred at the onset of World War 2 and during the Irish 'Emergency' in 1940. An invitation to Éamon de Valera from Earnest Hooton, Director of the Harvard-Irish Survey, to write a preface to Family and Community in Ireland, authored by American anthropologists, Conrad Arensberg and Solon Kimball, resulted in a request to impose restrictions on the about-to-be-published text. Offended by the frequent references to sex and to the content of chapter 11, 'Familism and Sex', the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland advised the Director of Harvard University Press to reconsider publication of the entire book. We investigate what happened, who was involved and how the 'crisis' was resolved - at least for the protagonists. We reveal some of the original unpublished text by Arensberg and Kimball, consider the circumstances of the censorship conducted on both sides of the Atlantic, the impact on the published text and the responses by the authors. We propose that further investigation into the excised content and the legacy of anthropological constructions of Irish sexualities is now warranted

Irish and British Studies · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies