Exhibiting Irishness : empire, race and nation, c. 1850-1970 / Shahmima Akhtar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Akhtar, Shahmima, author.

Series:

Studies in Imperialism Series

Studies in Imperialism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nationalism and art--Ireland--Exhibitions--History.

Nationalism and art.

National characteristics, Irish--Exhibitions--History.

National characteristics, Irish.

Ireland--Social life and customs.

Ireland.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 231 pages) : illustrations; digital file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2024.

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

data file

Biography/History:

Shahmima Akhtar is Assistant Professor of Black and Asian British History at University of Birmingham.

Summary:

Exhibiting Irishness analyses how exhibitions enabled Irish individuals and groups to work out (privately and publicly) their politicised existences across two centuries. As a cultural history of Irish identity, the book considers exhibitions as a formative platform for imagining a host of Irish pasts, presents and futures. Fair organisers responded to the contexts of famine and poverty, migration and diasporic settlement, independence movements and partition, as well as post-colonial nation building. My research demonstrates how Irish businesses and labourers, the elite organisers of the fairs and successive Irish governments curated Irishness. The central malleability of Irish identity on display emerged in tandem with the unfolding of Ireland’s political transformation from a colony of the British Empire, a migrant community in the United States, to a divided Ireland in the form of the Republic and Northern Ireland.

Contents:

Introduction: Irish identities on display

1. Famine and industry: Irelands original exhibitions

2. Diaspora and migration: Displayed Ireland abroad

3. Home rule and capitalism: Irish modernities

4. Interwar and partition: A divided Ireland

5. Debt and disagreement: Postcolonial Ireland

Conclusion: Ireland on display

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print record version and e-publication, viewed on October 07, 2024.

ISBN:

9781526157270

OCLC:

1467880415