| Abstract |
"This book builds upon the myriad of cultural-resource studies mining historic New York City and its Irish immigrant communities. Meredith B. Linn presents a number of primary sources from working-class Irish immigrants, focusing on illness, injury, and health care in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. She presents a "visceral historical archaeology" by using interdisciplinary methods and theories to examine how these newcomers to the United States experienced and reacted to three ailments that arguably were their leading causes of mortality and morbidity: typhus, tuberculosis, and work-related injuries. Because of how physicians and the American public understood these impacts, typhus exacerbated the stereotype of the Irish as sanguine, hot-headed, and animalistic, while tuberculosis, or the "white death," instead helped to "whiten" and re-humanize the Irish. In using these ailments as a lens, this study also presents new perspectives about urban labor, housing, community building, and consumption of commodities in a context of Irish diaspora"-- Provided by publisher. |
