- ISBN13: 9780815632016
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
“Bridget” was the Irish immigrant service girl who worked in American homes from the second half of the nineteenth century into the early years of the twentieth. She is widely known as a pop culture cliché: the young girl who wreaks havoc in middle-class American homes. Now, in the first book-length treatment of the topic, Margaret Lynch-Brennan tells the real story of such Irish domestic servants, often in their own words, providing a richly detailed portrait of t… More >>
The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930
#1 by Story Circle Book Reviews on April 29, 2010 - 9:11 pm
Margaret Lynch-Brennan, a woman of Irish descent, researched Irish immigrant women who worked as domestics in the northeast United States. Using letters written by the women servants, she compared images of life in Ireland during the famine with life for these women after they gained employment in their US employers’ homes.
In addition to photographs of these women in their youth, the text illustrates their stories. Many came to work at the ages of 12-14 and often stayed with the same family for years. Their history comes alive as Lynch-Brennan shows them through their own words gleaned from their many letters to each other and to family in Ireland. But even though they had to live in attics or cellars, work long hours, and entertain their guests in the kitchen, these Irish women maintained a strongly optimistic attitude and even became defiant if their employers asked too much of them.
Many experienced religious discrimination as their employers did not appreciate employing Catholics who wanted to take time off to go to church. But the Irish Bridgets maintained their staunch independence by attending church, going to dances to see their friends and relatives, and writing the letters that inspired this book.
by Susan M. Andrus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by Irish on April 29, 2010 - 10:34 pm
I loved this book.My grandmother was a domestic in NYC for 4 years after she landed at Ellis Island. I could envision her world at that time while reading the chapters.
Do yourself a favor, Buy this book!!!
Rating: 5 / 5