Shamrock and Sword's setting is the U.S.-Mexican War, remembered by Americans as an illustration of Manifest Destiny, the inevitable extension of the American frontier. It is remembered differently by Mexicans, who lost a substantial portion of their territory to an invading army. Perceptions on both sides of the border will be reshaped by Robert Ryal Miller's account of American soldiers who deserted to fight in the Mexican army. Miller uncovers the reasons for these desertions, presenting the soldiers' stories as they are revealed in records of the time. Many of these deserters were immigrant Irishmen.

The Irish Soldiers of Mexico sold out fourteen editions in English and three editions in Spanish from 1997 to 2010. It has been the basis of an MGM feature film and two documentaries; it has also been used in many history classes both in the United States and abroad. This revised edition includes new historical material such as the location of what is purported to be a death certificate for John Riley located in a church in Veracruz and evidence that appears to negate its value. The edition also includes updated "After the War" and "Commemorations" sections. Many positive changes in public perception of the San Patricios have taken place since the first publication of this book in 1997. In addition, there have been a number of new vehicles for dissemination of the history, not the least of which was the production of "One Man's Hero," starring Tom Berenger, three novels on the San Patiricios, a new sculpture in Mexico City of John Riley donated by the people of Ireland, and the Chieftains CD with songs commemorating the Irish battalion.

Tim Newark's The Fighting Irish uses the dramatic words of the soldiers themselves to tell their stories, gathered from diaries, letters, journals, and interviews with veterans in Ireland and across the world. "Tells the story of the Irish fighting man with wit, clarity, and scholarship." —Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War For hundreds of years, Irish soldiers have sought their destiny abroad. Wherever they've traveled, whichever side of the battlefield they've stood, the tales of their exploits have never been forgotten. Leaving his birthplace, the Irish soldier has traveled with hope, often seeking to bring a liberating revolution to his fellow countrymen. In search of adventure the Fighting Irish have been found in all corners of the world. Some sailed to America and joined in frontier fighting, others demonstrated their loyalty to their adopted homeland in the bloody combats of the American Civil War, as well as campaigns against the British Empire in Canada and South Africa. The Irish soldier can also be found in the thick of war during the twentieth century—facing slaughter at the Somme, desperate last-stands in the Congo—and, more recently, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is a widely held notion that, except for the elections of 1928 and 1960, the Irish have primarily influenced only state and local government. The Irish and the American Presidency reveals that the Irish have had a consistent and noteworthy impact on presidential careers, policies, and elections throughout American history. Using US party systems as an organizational framework, this book examines the various ways that Scots-Irish and Catholic Irish Americans, as well as the Irish who remained in eire, have shaped, altered, and sometimes driven such presidential political factors as party nominations, campaign strategies, elections, and White House policymaking.The Irish seem to be inextricably interwoven into important moments of presidential political history. Yanoso discusses the Scots-Irish participation in the American Revolution, the Whiskey Rebellion, and the War of 1812. She describes President Bill Clinton's successful Good Friday Agreement that brought peace and hope to Northern Ireland. And finally, she assesses the now-common presidential visits to Ireland as a strategy for garnering Irish-American support back home.No previous work has explored the impact of Irish and Irish-American affairs on US presidential politics throughout the entire scope of American history. Readers interested in presidential politics, American history, and/or Irish/Irish-American history are certain to find The Irish and the American Presidency enjoyable, informative, and impactful.

The American Irish: A History, is the first concise, general history of its subject in a generation. It provides a long-overdue synthesis of Irish-American history from the beginnings of emigration in the early eighteenth century to the present day. While most previous accounts of the subject have concentrated on the nineteenth century, and especially the period from the famine (1840s) to Irish independence (1920s), The American Irish: A History incorporates the Ulster Protestant emigration of the eighteenth century and is the first book to include extensive coverage of the twentieth century. Drawing on the most innovative scholarship from both sides of the Atlantic in the last generation, the book offers an extended analysis of the conditions in Ireland that led to mass migration and examines the Irish immigrant experience in the United States in terms of arrival and settlement, social mobility and assimilation, labor, race, gender, politics, and nationalism. It is ideal for courses on Irish history, Irish-American history, and the history of American immigration more generally.

This title addresses the deeper questions of how remembrance of the U.S.-Mexican War has influenced the complex relationship between these former enemies now turned friends.

In the nineteenth century, Latin America was home to the majority of the world's democratic republics. Many historians have dismissed these political experiments as corrupt pantomimes of governments of Western Europe and the United States. Challenging that perspective, James E. Sanders contends that Latin America in this period was a site of genuine political innovation and popular debate reflecting Latin Americans' visions of modernity. Drawing on archival sources in Mexico, Colombia, and Uruguay, Sanders traces the circulation of political discourse and democratic practice among urban elites, rural peasants, European immigrants, slaves, and freed blacks to show how and why ideas of liberty, democracy, and universalism gained widespread purchase across the region, mobilizing political consciousness and solidarity among diverse constituencies. In doing so, Sanders reframes the locus and meaning of political and cultural modernity.

The definitive history of the often forgotten U.S.-Mexican War paints an intimate portrait of the major players and their world—from Indian fights and Manifest Destiny, to secret military maneuvers, gunshot wounds, and political spin. “If one can read only a single book about the Mexican-American War, this is the one to read.” —The New York Review of Books Often overlooked, the U.S.-Mexican War featured false starts, atrocities, and daring back-channel negotiations as it divided the nation, paved the way for the Civil War a generation later, and launched the career of Abraham Lincoln. Amy S. Greenberg’s skilled storytelling and rigorous scholarship bring this American war for empire to life with memorable characters, plotlines, and legacies. Along the way it captures a young Lincoln mismatching his clothes, the lasting influence of the Founding Fathers, the birth of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and America’s first national antiwar movement. A key chapter in the creation of the United States, it is the story of a burgeoning nation and an unforgettable conflict that has shaped American history.