German and Irish Immigrants in the Midwestern United States, 1850–1900

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Regina Donlon

   Pages 1-22

3. An Uncertain Future: Ireland, Germany and the United States at the Turn of the Century

   • Regina Donlon

   Pages 23-36

4. Making the Transition: Irish and German Immigrants Arrive in the Midwest

   • Regina Donlon

   Pages 37-64

5. A Peaceful Conquest: Immigrant Settlement in St Louis and Fort Wayne

   • Regina Donlon

   Pages 65-92

6. Production, Enterprise, and Innovation: The Economic Activity of German and Irish Immigrants

   • Regina Donlon

   Pages 93-120

7. A Reputation of Respectability: Social and Cultural Aspects of Immigrant Life

   • Regina Donlon

   Pages 121-145

8. The Church on the Hill: Religious Entities in the American Midwest

   • Regina Donlon

   Pages 147-175

9. From Discrimination to Domination: Immigrant Political Participation

   • Regina Donlon

   Pages 177-204

10. Piety, Poverty and Perseverance: The Experience of Immigrant Women

    • Regina Donlon

    Pages 205-233

11. Conclusion

    • Regina Donlon

    Pages 235-244

12. Back Matter

    Pages 245-273

    PDF

In the second half of the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of German and Irish immigrants left Europe for the United States. Many settled in the Northeast, but some boarded trains and made their way west. Focusing on the cities of Fort Wayne, Indiana and St Louis, Missouri, Regina Donlon employs comparative and transnational methodologies in order to trace their journeys from arrival through their emergence as cultural, social and political forces in their communities. Drawing comparisons between large, industrial St Louis and small, established Fort Wayne and between the different communities which took root there, Donlon offers new insights into the factors which shaped their experiences—including the impact of city size on the preservation of ethnic identity, the contrasting concerns of the German and Irish Catholic churches and the roles of women as social innovators. This unique multi-ethnic approach illuminates overlooked dimensions of the immigrant experience in the American Midwest.

• German immigration
• Irish Immigration
• immigration studies
• Diaspora studies
• the immigrant experience in America
• ethnic identity
• Civil War
• nineteenth-century America
• migration history
• Midwestern United States history
• History of the Midwest
• emigration from Germany
• emigration from Ireland
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Fort Wayne, Indiana
• nineteenth-century labor history

“Donlon’s book is original, methodologically rigorous and makes a genuine and welcome contribution to migration and diaspora historiography.” (Sarah Roddy, Irish Economic and Social History, November 10, 2019) “An innovative, scholarly and highly readable comparative history of German and Irish immigrants to America’s Midwest, which draws upon rich demographic and textual materials to unlock the parallel and entwined lives of what were mid-nineteenth-century America’s largest European immigrant groups.” (Donald M. MacRaild, Professor of British and Irish History, University of Roehampton, UK)

• Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland

  Regina Donlon

Regina Donlon works in the Department of History at Maynooth University, Ireland. 

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