noel ignatiev's book "how the Irish became white" is not necessarily a new idea. it has been written about before. ronald takaki wrote about it a different mirror. while, it's true this is nothing you learn about in school, it's been a well held belief about the irish relationship with african-americans. also, ignatiev's book is much better researched.
as an irish american i am not offended by ignatiev's book. certainly, there is much more to this book than how the "big bad Irish" treated african-americans. ignatiev doesn't reduce this book to such a simple theory. the story of the success of the Irish is too great to reduce it to such a simplistic view. the irish were a people that were so tired of being abused that they were willing to achieve success on any terms. luckily, for the irish they had white skin, and used that to their advantage in the democratic party. the story of the irish is the greatest success story in american history. all ignatiev does is portray an honest portrayal of the irish success story. he doesn't say that the irish got ahead just at the expense of blacks, but that it was one factor. too often that the irish look at themselves as being victimized. but it's also important to look at ourselves honestly as well: good with the bad.

Unlike the other reviewer who apparently missed the entire point of the book, I found this book powerful and enlightening. The opening pages of the book delineate the plight of the Irish in their homeland and uses this as a basis for their evolution as citizens in the US. What is more, they are not the only ones who go through this evolutionary process of "becoming white", the Poles, Italians, Jews and others after them would have their own journey to assimilation into US culture as well. As this book clearly describes, immigrants had the possibility to become white, African Americans did not. Further, the Irish had to choose: conform to the native-born culture or be forever shut out of opportunity just like the Blacks. It is an illuminating look at our society and one which truly does help us understand today. I read this book as part of a 13-book cirriculum for a graduate history seminar whose topic was the history of Racism in the US after 1870. It was one of the best-written texts and provided an excellent foundation for cultural studies. I highly reccomend it to anyone who seeks a better understanding of social history and today's US culture. Rather than placing blame, the author provides the facts and understanding of what happened, good and bad, so that we see the complexity and ultimately, the uselessness of blame. It is only with this understanding that we can start to make changes.

Ignatiev tells the tangled, tattered history of Irish-black relations in America in the 30 years or so leading up to the Civil War. It shows how the Irish used labor unions and the Democratic Party to elevate themselves in the stratified American republic. At first, the white protestant majority in America made little distinction between Irish immigrants and free blacks -- it scorned them both. But by emphasizing racism, leaders of the Irish-American community were able to swing themselves over to the side of the dominant class, to the horror of their brethren in Ireland, who identified the slaves' struggles for emancipation with their own battles against English rule.

As though it will make things better to feel guilty about sharing the physical characteristics of an immense ethnic group, some of whose members happened to win and succeed in the past,and who did not necessarily treat everyone as nicely as they could have, this poorly-written, poorly-thought out product of what was little more than a semi-literate punk-type zine in the early 1990s has gotten way too much mileage for its toxic combination of misanthropy against "whites" and naive, feckless glorification of "non-whites." Its look at ethnicity may have been cutting-edge in about 1970, when people were still excited about the anthropological proclamation that there is insufficient biological difference between humans to identify "races"; it assaults a windmill, a scarecrow that does not exist. The simple fact is that American whites, by and large, except for a few oddballs, actually wish well to non-whites, but are sick of being blamed for things that they personally did not do; another simple fact is that there has never been a nation without a dominant ethnic group and there has never been a nation whose dominant ethnic group has bent over backward as much as American whites to extend privileges to just about anyone, whether or not any offense has been done to such persons' ancestors. But sober recognitions do not do well with the angry, politically naive, quite easily led troop of college malcontents who buy into the nonsense embodied in "Race Traitor." Perhaps these hapless teens are attracted to the stark formulations contained in the "Race Traitor" mindset; I was attracted to dramatic extremes too when I was a stupid kid, before I realized the world has very little pure good or evil. "Race Traitor" paints a picture satisfying only to those yearning for a sense of an injustice to rail against in order that they might feel something rather than realize their personality is an empty hole. A less balanced view of American ethnic relations cannot be found. I only pity the guilty whites who buy this and buy into this and feel that they should be responsible for the misdeeds of people in the past with whom they happen to share the same pigmentation. A pathetic, stupid book.

this is a fantastic collection of essays and poetry (2 poems). it is necessary for americans to finally come to terms with the fragility of being "white". why does being "white"-skinned, or having a white parent, not prevent the discrmination of Latinos, Blacks, and Asians? the simple truth is that "white" and "race" are all socially constructed "truths" to divide a potentially awe-inspiring nation of nations. what happens when "white" people wake up and call for an end to racial oppression? read the book...

...RACE TRAITOR does not promote self-loathing among whites. Its task is to abolish white dominance by showing examples of personal sacrifice for those who are oppressed. It is an important text for anyone who is willing to free their mind of current conservative political jargon and create a solution to the epidemic of racial hierarchy...

A Good Book to explore the culture and history of the pain that they went through. The struggle which we don't see or realize.