Remembering Ahanagran: A History of Stories / Edition 1

by Richard White, William Cronon

Overview

Sara Walsh was born in 1919 in the west of Ireland, in a land of storytellers. In prose that is neither history nor memoir but something larger and brighter than both, Remembering Ahanagran captures her memories of her early years in Ireland, her migration to the United States, and her marriage to Harry White, the Harvard-educated son of Russian Jewish emigrants. Her son, eminent historian Richard White, in collaboration with Sara, forces history as it is traditionally written into conversation with personal recollections.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295983554
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	12/01/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Richard White is Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Foreword: The Competing Truths of History and Memory—William Cronon

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Epilogue

What People are Saying About This

Geoffrey C. Ward

In this brilliant book, Richard White proves that he is not only one of the finest historians in America but also one of the most eloquent and ambitious. Through a loving but clear—eyed examination of the tales his immigrant mother tells of her early life in Ireland and the United States, he has managed to uncover a host of surprising truths—-about his own family, about the complex, often poignant relationship between history and memory, and about what it means to be an American.

William Cronon

Subtly weaving memory and history to suggest how the two reinforce but also challenge each other, Remembering Ahanagran is a powerful meditation on the immigrant experience in America. It is an absolutely wonderful book. -- ( William Cronon, University of Wisconsin-Madison )

Lore Segal

With equal and equally tender respect for document, memory, and lore, Richard White recreates and joins his Irish and his Jewish ancestry. An extraordinary book.

Patricia Nelson Limerick

Remembering Ahanagran is a rare and remarkable achievement: a book that carries as great a charge in emotional power as it does in intellectual energy. Sara Walsh’s ‘memory’ and Richard White’s ‘history’ travel through terrain from the most urgent American concerns of immigration and intermarriage to the most elemental, universal issues of love and death. This book gives its readers access to the company of two people with extraordinary gifts for life’s basic enterprise: taking in experience, and making sense of it.

Editorial Reviews

""Remembering Abanagran is a rare and remarkable achievement: a book that carries as great a charge in emotional power as it does in intellectual energy."

From the Publisher

Richard White . . . has here turned his lucent style and empathic intelligence to sifting fact from fiction, history from memory . . . an opportunity for every reader to reflect upon what it means to be a citizen of an ever-changing nation of immigrants.
— The Washington Post Book World

Geoffrey C. Ward

Subtly weaving memory and history to suggest how the two reinforce but also challenge each other, Remembering Ahanagran is a powerful meditation on the immigrant experience in America. It is an absolutelywonderful book.
—University of Wisconsin-Madison

William Cronon