Items related to Looking for Jimmy: A Search for Irish America
In this remarkable collection of writings chronicling the author's exploration of his own past, Quinn paints a brilliant new portrait of the Irish-American men and women whose culture and values now play such a central role in all of our identities as Americans.
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Synopsis:
'Paddy' - the caricature of the heavy-drinking, hard brawling Irishman born in Vaudeville acts and nativist cartoons - remains, unfortunately, a vivid feature of the American and British national imagination. But as this stereotype fades into the past, what image does America have of the millions of Irish-Catholic immigrants who have played such a central role in its history? In this collection of writings, Peter Quinn explores his own Irish-American roots, alongside the lives of the hundreds of thousands of nameless immigrants that struggled alongside his own ancestors. In Quinn's hands, 'Paddy' gives way to an image of 'Jimmy' - an archetypal Irish-American (a composite of Jimmy Cagney and Jimmy Walker) who comes to life as the fast-talking, tough-yet-refined urban American who redefined American politics, street culture, religion, and moral imagination. Addressing subjects ranging from the impact of decades of immigration on Western Ireland to the long legacy of Irish-American Archbishop John Hughes, Quinn's vibrant prose weaves together the story of a people that has made an immeasurable contribution to American history.
About the Author:
Peter Quinn is the author of the novel Banished Children of Eve (winner of an American Book Award) and previously served as speechwriter for New York governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo. A third-generation New Yorker whose granparents were born in Ireland, he is currently Editorial Director for Time Warner and lives in Hastings, New York.
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- PublisherGerald Duckworth & Co Ltd
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 0715636693
- ISBN 13 9780715636695
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages320
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