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PROCLAMATION 1625

Name: PROCLAMATION 1625
Author: Herbert Byrd Jr.
ISBN: 978-1-4602-8563-3

AMERICA'S ENSLAVEMENT OF THE IRISH

by Herbert Byrd Jr. ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2016

An intriguing, if unconvincing, examination of Irish servitude in America.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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GHOST HUNTING IN MONTANA

A SEARCH FOR ROOTS IN THE OLD WEST

by III Conrad ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1994

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A slow poke through Montana by Conrad (former editor of Horizons), a guy who likes a side dish of bile to accompany his travels. Conrad hits the road in the Big Sky State to take in the scenery and dig up a little family history. The family side of the story comes and goes—both grandfathers moved to the territory back in the late 1800s—with Conrad trying valiantly to paint them as fascinating characters. They're not, even with murder, mayhem, and adultery thrown in. Nor does Conrad succeed as an artful recorder of today's Montana. He can't help trotting out the obligatory Montaniana—barroom fisticuffs, brushes with Mr. Griz, trouty days, whiskey nights—while historical context comes in spurts from the ``Billings was named after Frederick Billings, an executive of the...'' school of background information. He mooches around with a fine disregard for the consequences, a little piece of bravery much to his credit. Most folks Conrad runs into are either forlorn, bitter, drunk, or just plain ready to brawl—bump into someone and get your lights punched out, mention the wrong name and get your lights punched out, offer an ill-timed comment and get your lights punched out. Then again, maybe he just spent too much time in bars. There is a wealth of detail in theses pages, some of it captivating, from ghoulish doings in Great Falls to the virtues of buffalo meat to tensions over wolf reintroduction to the quick portraits of the folks he crosses paths with, but little, if any, continuity. One item is cobbled to another, a pastiche from which an image of Montana never emerges. Don't expect to learn why they call this land the Last Great Place; even as a miscellany, Conrad's sidelong glimpse of Montana never conjures much excitement. (Photos, not seen)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-06-258551-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

HOW TO TRAVEL WITH A SALMON AND OTHER ESSAYS

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HOW TO TRAVEL WITH A SALMON AND OTHER ESSAYS

by Umberto Eco ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1994

While he wastes some time exposing cliches—Indians in westerns, unworthy sequels—that are cliches to expose, Eco...

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Popular novelist (The Name of the Rose, 1983; Foucault's Pendulum, 1989) and notorious semiologist (at the Univ. of Bologna) Eco shows himself to be a journalist as well with this generally diverting volume of short pieces.

Eco calls these short essays diario minimo—minimal diaries—after the magazine column where he first published a series of such efforts (previously collected in Misreadings). The work presented here, much of which dates from the late '80s and early '90s, celebrates, or more often condemns, postmodern life in a style familiar to American readers. Occasional parodic fantasies in the mode of Borges or Calvino find Eco exploring the intriguing, if absurd, notion of a map in 1:1 scale, chronicling race relations in a future universe populated by humorously bizarre alien life-forms, or describing watches whose features cause one to lose track of the time. But Eco focuses on articulating his amusing complaints, analyzing our quotidian myths with light touches and lamentations that will recall Andy Rooney and Erma Bombeck—at best, an academic Mike Royko—sooner than Roland Barthes. Pieces on once-current events have been carefully excluded, but most of these essays remain essentially journalistic in their devotion to exploring contemporary life. The title piece pits Eco against an English hotel bureaucracy intent on making it difficult for him to refrigerate an expensive salmon that he has brought from Copenhagen; others mock "how-to'' essays—on fax machines and cellular telephones, for example; there are cautionary tales of encounters with Amtrak trains and Roman cabs. All have as their subtext the chaos brought in the wake of unbridled technological innovation and intercontinental travel.

While he wastes some time exposing cliches—Indians in westerns, unworthy sequels—that are cliches to expose, Eco entertains with his clever reflections and with his unique persona, the featured player in his stories.