Shanty

Abstract: From the time they arrived in the United States in the 1820s, Irish immigrants built wooden shanties that, while often only a single room, reflected the resourcefulness of their builders. As the pace of immigration accelerated, "shanty Irish" became shorthand for otherness and a lack of civilization. Shantytown residents pushed back on the streets, in the courts, and on the stages of nineteenth-century America, asserting ethnic and class aspirations. As Irish-Americans cemented their political and cultural influence in the twentieth century, the shanty acquired a nostalgic glow, celebrating the tenacity of Irish immigrants even as they ceased to live in shanties.