This work provides a commentary on the landmarks of Irish agrarian history in the modern period.

The writing of Irish American history has been transformed since the 1960s. This volume demonstrates how scholars from many disciplines are addressing not only issues of emigration, politics and social class but also race, labour, gender, representation, historical memory and return (both literal and symbolic) to Ireland. This scholarship embraces Protestants as well as Catholics, incorporates analysis from geography, sociology and literary criticism and proposes a transnational framework giving attention to both sides of the Atlantic.

Named for its mythical leader Captain Rock, avenger of agrarian wrongs, the Rockite movement of 1821 24 in Ireland was notorious for its extraordinary violence. In Captain Rock, James S. Donnelly, Jr., offers both a fine-grained analysis of the conflict and a broad exploration of Irish rural society after the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
Originating in west Limerick, the Rockite movement spread quickly under the impact of a prolonged economic depression. Before long the insurgency embraced many of the better-off farmers. The intensity of the Rockites grievances, the...