The book, The Modern Temper talks about a lot of problems and events that happened in the 1920s. Its main focus is on America, but this book can also connect with the Irish Civil War when looking at it in a bigger frame. How I connect this book with the Irish Civil War is by looking at certain events and rights. I connect these three events in Ireland with events that happened in America, which were corporate lobbying, and women’s rights. These two events are talked about in the book, the modern temper, and in this blog, I will be connecting them to events that happened during the Irish Civil War and the rights they were fighting for.
The first connection this book brings to the Irish Civil War, or its whole independence attempt is corporate lobbying. In America, a lot of corporations had many politicians in their pockets by striking down certain legislation and rights that would harm or cost corporations money. So that meant for workers many of the rights that they needed or wanted were not being granted by the government because of corporations in politicians’ pockets. This situation could connect with the politicians in Ireland to the parliament in the United Kingdom. Before the Irish Civil War, the United Kingdom had major control of Ireland, and many of the decisions that were made for Ireland were made by the UK parliament. This meant the citizens of Ireland if they wanted rights or certain legislation to pass, would have to convince people that do not even live in their country to pass these rights or legislations. The author explains how corporations had control of the federal government in America and is the same as the UK’s parliament having complete control of Ireland’s government and the decisions they made.
The second connection the author brings up in the book that coincides with the Irish Civil War is the women’s rights movement. When comparing women’s rights in the Irish Civil War, countless things are different, but there are also major similarities. Like in America, women were fighting for the right to vote, and be represented in their government. However, in Ireland, they were fighting for the same rights but instead of just women, it’s all the citizens of Ireland. Ireland did get some representation in parliament, but not enough to make significant changes to its country. This involved a conflict in which Ireland wanted to be independent and not rely on Britain or the United Kingdom for self-governance. Women want their voices heard and participate in the act of voting and being able to represent. Ireland wanted the same thing of being represented equally under parliament and the British monarchy. Henceforth the reason the Anglo-Irish Treaty was developed.
Overall when comparing America in Ireland’s problems these two events are pretty different in what they are fighting for. However, they are the same in the rights they are fighting for. One of them is the government which is supposed to represent them while not being controlled by someone else. (Corporations/UK’s government) As well as people fighting to have equal representation under their government in the voting process and self-representation. (women’s suffrage/Anglo-Irish Treaty)
- Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.
