by Maureen Dezell

Old-time politics, piety, and St. Patrick's Day parades loom large when the Irish come to the American mind. None truly represents the complex legacy or contributions of the nation's oldest ethnic group, who rank among the most highly educated and affluent Americans today.
In Irish America, Maureen Dezell takes a new and invigorated look at Americans of Irish Catholic ancestry -- who they are, and how they got that way. A welcome antidote to so many standard-issue, sentimental representations of the Iri