The New York Irish ed. by Ronald H. Bayor and Timothy J. Meagher (review)

506BOOK REVIEWS those of us who relish visiting those places where the seeds of faith were first planted by our intrepid predecessors. Joseph C. Llnck, CO. The Oratory Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania The New York Irish. Edited by Ronald H. Bayor and Timothy J. Meagher. (Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press. 1996. Pp. xxüi, 743. $45.00.) The New York Irish is a welcome and valuable collection of essays organized chronologically rather than topicaUy that discusses aspects of the Irish experience in America's largest city from before Independence to the present. The book is divided into five sections, each containing between three and five essays introduced by an"Overview" written by a distinguished scholar in the field of Irish American history. It is a big book, not only in heft but Ln import. Since the book is not organized topicaUy readers with an interest m reUgion wiU have to sift through the essays in order to piece together a coherent picture of the role of the CathoUc Church in the Uves of NewYork's Irish citizens over time. Nevertheless, in their "Introduction," the editors acknowledge the importance of the Church Ln the history of the NewYork Irish. Significantly, they see Irish-America shaping the Church, and not vice versa.This theme is continued Ln several other essays found in the book. Religion here is viewed from a sociological rather than a theological vantage point, and mostly from a "bottom-up" rather than a "top-down" perspective. CoUeen McDanneU's "Going to the Ladies' Fair: Irish Catholics in NewYork City, 1870-1900,"for example, focuses on the often overlooked role of lay women in parish activities.Alan Kraut's "Illness and Medical Care among Irish Immigrants Ui AntebeUum New York" also stresses the importance of Catholic women in Irish New York, in this case, the work of nuns in creating health care institutions . The church hierarchy is not overlooked in these pages, however.The interaction between New York's Irish-dominated poUtical machine and its Irishdominated clergy is discussed in several essays, as is the Church's stance on Irish-American labor activism, education, and social welfare. In addition, IrishAmerican spirituality is elegantly examined Ln Charles Farming's essay, "The Heart's Speech No Longer Stifled: NewYork IrishWriting Since the 1960s." Other standouts among the many fine essays in this book include Hasia Diner's overview of the NewYork Irish in the mid-nineteenth century, and, especiaUy , Lawrence McCaffrey's moving essay-memoir in which he reflects on a lifetime of scholarship using his Cavan-born father's experiences in NewYork as his leitmotif. BOOK REVIEWS507 The New York Irish is an outstanding work and is sure to inspire studies of otherAmerican cities whose history was shaped by their Irish populations. It is a pioneering work, and it is a model for further scholarship. Janet Nolan Loyola University Chicago Religion and Politics in the Early Republic:Jasper Adams and the ChurchState Debate. Edited by Daniel L. Dreisbach. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. 1996. Pp. xix, 220. $42.95 clothbound; $16.95 paperback .) Daniel Dreisbach teaches Ln the Department of Justice, Law, and Society at the American University,Washington, D.C. He offers here a weU-edited, interesting , and useful coUection of documents from the early part of the nineteenth century discussing the relation of reUgion and poUtics. For his purpose, Dreisbach focuses on a sermon by the Reverend Jasper Adams, The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States (1833), with its extensive notes, responses from ChiefJustice John MarshaU,Justice Joseph Story, and President James Madison, and a long, critical review, of uncertain authorship, entitled "Immunity of ReUgion." He offers some historical comments and perspective of his own on a debate which is with us stiU. Adams, related to the Adamses of Massachusetts and a Congregationalist turned an Episcopal priest, was a professor, moral phüosopher, and president of Charleston CoUege. He preached his sermon during a period of"freedom's ferment "with the emergence ofJacksonian democracy,the disestabUshment ofreUgion in Massachusetts in 1833, an attempt to establish a Christian party in poUtics, and a controversy over the deUvery of maU on Sunday. Living in South Carolina, Adams had...