Podcast | Irish Americans in the Civil War with Damian Shiels

Posted on by Jake Wynn

This episode of the Public History podcast looks beyond the Irish Brigade to the everyday lives of Irish-born Union soldiers. We dig into letters, pension files, class, money, and memory with historian Damien Shiels and why Irish Civil War service has long been misunderstood on both sides of the Atlantic. Listen to the episode.

Winslow Homer depicts class divide at Thanksgiving holiday | 1860

Posted on by Jake Wynn
Working class family on Thanksgiving in 1860 as depicted by artist Winslow Homer with son working late and coming home to care for his sister and mother.

Winslow Homer’s 1860 Harper’s Weekly illustration reveals a stark Thanksgiving class divide - opulent elites relaxing contrasted with coal miners and their families toiling through the holiday. Discover this powerful social critique and how it relates to Pennsylvania’s anthracite fields on the eve of the Civil War. Read the full story.