Date of Award
2025
Degree Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
History, PhD
Program
School of Arts and Humanities
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Joshua Goode
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Daniel Livesay
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Lori Ann Ferrell
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2025 Timothy L. Werlinger
Keywords
Ireland, Nineteenth century, Race, Nationalism
Subject Categories
European History | History
Abstract
The 19th century witnessed the rise of race and racism as a dominant framework of worldwide identity politics. These politics shaped the various social hierarchies and nationalist contexts across Europe and the world. Racial constructs adopted cultural, economic, and political components and did not rely exclusively on biological determinism. This had the effect of reinforcing or hardening boundaries between groups. This dissertation examines how racial identity was negotiated within an Irish context. It does this by considering social, scientific and nationalist discourses that engaged race as a device of inclusion and exclusion. By examining how racialized language permeated the Irish scientific and public literature along with public thought this study argues how race was a contested yet important way of defining “Irishness.” It further argues that racial identity was not merely an import from other European ideas but was actively interpreted to meet local conditions and agendas. This active interpretation reshaped 19th century ideas of class, ethnicity and politics and would have an impact on the development of a free Irish nation in the 20th century.
ISBN
9798265477392
Recommended Citation
Werlinger, Timothy. (2025). What We Talk About When We Talk About Race: Racial Discourses, Nationalism and Identity in Nineteenth Century Ireland. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 1072. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1072.
