An intriguing, if unconvincing, examination of Irish servitude in America.
A debut book chronicles the enslavement and brutal treatment of the Irish by the British for nearly 200 years.
The story of African-American slavery is a familiar one, comprehensively covered by scholars. Comparatively neglected is the plight of the Irish, who were the chief source of slave labor for the British American colonies for more than 179 years. In this slim volume, Byrd traces the woeful treatment of the Irish at the hands of their British tormentors, beginning with an exploration of the origins of vitriolic sentiment in the 12th century, which lampooned the Irish as poor, vulgar, and lazy. The demand for labor in the British colonies, as well as the desire among many in England to reduce the Irish population in Europe, inspired the practice of forcibly sending Irish prisoners to places like Virginia to work. Eventually, Irish children were rounded up and transported as well. According to the author, in 1625, King James I delivered a proclamation that authorized selling Irish prisoners into slavery, and they were bought and traded like cattle and subjected to unspeakably inhumane treatment. The laws considered any child born to a slave also a slave, and owners purposely bred Irish and black slaves to increase their holdings. Eventually, both Irish and black slaves rebelled, and according to Byrd, their oppressors invented the notion of whiteness as a means to sow dissent among them. The author also discusses the evolution of white racism out of this strategy, the process by which the Irish became understood to be white, and the genealogical legacy left by planned miscegenation. Byrd’s study is clearly written and admirably concise. In addition, he evinces an impressive freedom from conventional historical accounts, boldly willing to soberly entertain counternarratives. But the brevity of the book necessitates that some of the arguments proffered are hypercondensed, and this can diminish their persuasiveness. Most scholars would argue that Byrd largely conflates the albeit brutal indentured servitude of the Irish with the chattel slavery experienced by Africans. The author’s study, while provocative, is simply not rigorous or expansive enough to inspire a rejection of the academic consensus view.
An intriguing, if unconvincing, examination of Irish servitude in America.Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4602-8563-3
Page Count: 228
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The spawn of Seinlanguage: shticky meditations by a stand-up comic who now stars in a top-rated television show. As Tim Taylor, Allen is the focal point of Home Improvement, but his manly-man persona plays off his wife, ``Tool Time'' cohorts, and other characters. Here we have Allen solo, closer to the stand-up mode, musing ``about many things I want to say about being a man.'' His short chapters mainly consist of riffs on his past, his humor safely in the middle American mainstream. Born Timothy Allen Dick, he learned to cope with his unusual moniker through humor and thus segues into observations genitalistic. Allen resents women saying men's cars are linked to their penises: ``What's an extension of the vagina—a purse?'' His life was transformed, he writes, by a Playboy centerfold, and he does have some wise thoughts on objectification: ``If we could have had sex with our cars and boats, it would have been a lot easier. But we'd be a smaller species.'' What should men ``look for in a gal? The answer is easy: breath.'' Allen balances such cheap laughs with some insights, suggesting that women, like men, seek glitz in a partner but eventually settle for ``the family station wagon.'' There's more: marriage, sports, and, of course, tools, leading to his innovative analysis of the impact of tool belts on butt cracks. He ends with some heartfelt sentiments on fatherhood. Allen only briefly touches on the traumas that have fueled his psyche: the death of his father in a car wreck when Tim was 11 and a prison sentence for selling drugs. (The lack of privacy in prison supplies the book's title.) More memoir and less shtick might have been a better balance here. For loyal fans, who should still be plentiful. (First printing of 500,000; first serial to TV Guide and Playboy)
Pub Date: Oct. 7, 1994
ISBN: 0-7868-6134-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Danielle's dirty linen. A lot of this unauthorized biography is about legal wrangling, much of it to do with child custody. It's a good story, but Steel could have told it better. Bane and Benet, People magazine staff reporters, follow up on their Steel exposÇ of 1992 (written with Paula Chin) with this book cobbled together from interviews, court depositions, and letters Steel wrote to her second husband, Danny Zugelder (most while he was in prison). Heaven knows Steel's life is more than the stuff of romance. She was a neglected child. When she was hospitalized with ovarian cancer at 16, her parents never visited her. She married two convicts: Zugelder, a car thief and bank robber, who was also jailed for assault and rape (they were married in a prison ceremony and consummated their relationship in a bathroom); and Bill Toth, a heroin addict imprisoned for fencing stolen goods. Toth and Steel fought over custody of their son, Nicholas, and much of the last half of the bio comes from trial depositions and interviews with Toth and his lawyers. Steel finally found her putative Prince Charming in John Traina, who the authors take pains to point out is not and has never been a shipping magnate, though he does have a dynamite collection of cigarette cases and closets full of designer clothes. With their nine children, Steel and Traina bought the enormous Spreckels mansion in San Francisco. They also own a mini- compound in the Napa Valley, where they house a fleet of cars and a staff of thousands. For the sins of success, eccentricity, and a strong sense of privacy, the authors try to build a case against Steel. But in the end she comes through as a hard worker and a gritty survivor. It's you-can-run-but-you-can't-hide journalism, gossipy with a sound foundation, and not too high on elegant turns of phrase. (First printing of 100,000; author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-11257-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
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