Irish immigrants grappled with three kinds of health problems that disproportionately afflicted them - typhus fever (then called “Irish Fever”), work-related injuries, and tuberculosis - and these conditions affected their reception and integration into American society. Native-born Americans interpreted the visible effects of typhus fever and hard labor on Irish immigrant bodies as symptoms of essential Irish difference, fueling dehumanizing stereotypes, and yet, reacted more sympathetically to those afflicted by tuberculosis; this then all-too-familiar scourge enabled some Americans to recognize equal humanity in Irish sufferers.
The book also focuses on how Irish immigrants, themselves, responded with a variety of healing strategies, including using remedies with origins in Ireland and commodities newly available to them in New York City.
Meredith B. Linn is assistant professor of historical archaeology at the Bard Graduate Center. She is coauthor, with Nan A. Rothschild and Diana diZerega Wall, of An Archaeological Investigation of the Seneca Village Site. She is particularly interested in how and what material remains can tell us about the lived, embodied experiences of people neglected or misrepresented in written records.
This event is part of the Celtic Medical Society's Speaker Series.