Irish-American Anti-Imperialism in Patrick Ford’s The Criminal History of the British Empire
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8959137 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert O’sullivan (0009-0002-6710-7139, University of Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1025-1044 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Historical Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0018246x24000098 |
| OpenAlex | W4392470227 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
In 1881, Patrick Ford, the Irish-American nationalist editor of the New York Irish newspaper The Irish World and American Industrial Liberator , published The criminal history of the British empire , a collection of five letters that he had written to William Gladstone. In The criminal history , Ford constructed a comprehensive account of British imperial history, beginning with England’s conquest of Ireland, before detailing the colonization of North America, Britain’s participation in the transatlantic slave trade, the American Revolution, British rule in India, the opium wars, and Britain’s contemporary colonization of Africa. This article contributes to scholarship on American views of the British empire in the post-bellum United States. In exploring how Ford constructed a Manichean interpretation of world history, where the British imperial project devastated every region it invaded, the article analyses Ford’s reasons for writing and publishing the letters that formed The criminal history . Finally, the article shows that Ford’s central purpose was to foster a visceral hatred of the British empire among his Irish-American readership, to maintain a commitment to their ethnic heritage as proud Irish people, and to encourage his readers that a better future would soon arrive, when the British empire was finally a relic of the past
Ancient history · British Empire · Empire · Irish · Linguistics · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Philosophy
Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War
Land and Liberalism
Sacred Interests
The Dynamiters
British Democracy and Irish Nationalism 1876–1906
The Idea of Greater Britain
Divided Hearts
The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery
The Famine Plot Revisited
Empires, Exceptions, and Anglo-Saxons
Liberty and Nationalism in Ireland, 1798–1922
Skirmishing, The Irish World, and Empire, 1876–86
Global Dimensions of Irish Identity
Irish Nationalists in America
A Greater Ireland
The Fenian Ideal and Irish Nationalism, 1882-1916
Easter, 1916
The Civil War of 1812
Worldmaking after Empire
Patterns of Empire
A Turn to Empire
Power and Connection
The Opium War
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |