{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.023932426091037073, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0004692632566870014, 'mean_word_length': 5.402402402402402, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Irish American Ethnicity and the Confederate Experiment

The American Civil War was a pivotal and centripetal point for the Irish in America. No one knows this better than David T. Gleeson, who has emerged as the expert on Irish-Southern ethnicity. Irish participation in and reaction to the war provided accelerated mechanisms for the Irish to succeed, assimilate, and gain acceptance in America. With their strongly established fighting reputation, improved community unity, organization, infrastructure, and shared history, the Irish found their hopes and prospects for opportunity increased in post–Civil War America. Focusing on the South, Gleeson’s well-researched work offers a compelling challenge to the conventional wisdom of Irish participation in the Confederacy. Most modern books concentrate only on the fighting spirit and battle accomplishments of the Irish. Irish-Southern participation in the Civil War is complex and is an imperfectly understood element. In this ambitious book’s deep examination of the Irish-Confederate experiment, Gleeson argues that the conflict and its aftermath were crucial to the integration of Irish Americans into the South (p. 1). Taking a comprehensive view of the subject, Gleeson considers the role Irish Southerners played in the political debates of secession and in the formation of the Confederacy, as well as considering their fighting prowess for rebel causes, the effects of the Confederate defeat, subsequent occupation/ reconstruction, and the emerging ethnic identity that embraced the Lost Cause ideology. As Gleeson’s analysis unfolds, the “Lost Cause” ideology becomes the means for Irish social acceptance, assimilation, and Catholic preservation among the emergent nativists and Confederate ideologues. Gleeson’s numerous examples and analysis are persuasive. Those Irish who lived in the eleven Southern slave states that seceded from the Union had to adjust to a third identity: that of Confederates. Though few had direct involvement with slavery, thousands supported the new republic that preserved the institution. In an era of weak national identity, the post-