Ireland in the Virginian Sea - (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo) by Audrey Horning (Paperback)

About the Book

Ireland in the Virginian Sea: Colonialism in the British Atlantic

Book Synopsis

In the late sixteenth century, the English started expanding westward, establishing control over parts of neighboring Ireland as well as exploring and later colonizing distant North America. Audrey Horning deftly examines the relationship between British colonization efforts in both locales, depicting their close interconnection as fields for colonial experimentation. Focusing on the Ulster Plantation in the north of Ireland and the Jamestown settlement in the Chesapeake, she challenges the notion that Ireland merely served as a testing ground for British expansion into North America. Horning instead analyzes the people, financial networks, and information that circulated through and connected English plantations on either side of the Atlantic.
In addition, Horning explores English colonialism from the perspective of the Gaelic Irish and Algonquian societies and traces the political and material impact of contact. The focus on the material culture of both locales yields a textured specificity to the complex relationships between natives and newcomers while exposing the lack of a determining vision or organization in early English colonial projects.

Review Quotes

"[A] wide-ranging and illuminating study of colonialism in the British Atlantic." -- Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History

"A compelling, nuanced, richly detailed and solidly documented investigation of colonialism, colonizers, and the colonized." -- Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians

"A remarkable, creative work that uncovers and illumines. . . . Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above." -- CHOICE

"Bold and challenging." -- Journal of Southern History

"Generate[s] a provocative, new perspective on the old debate of Ireland as a colonial model for developing Jamestown." -- Southern Historian

"Horning's larger conclusions will surely generate productive study and debate." -- Journal of British Studies

"In producing this accessible yet sophisticated account of two overlapping but distinct colonial enterprises, Horning offers a subtle interpretation of the complex early modern English plantation experience." -- American Historical Review

"Meticulous, thoughtful, and a welcome contribution." -- H-War

"Usefully encourages us to add complexity to often-simplified understandings of cultural conflict." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History