Thomas D'Arcy McGee: A Biography

A study of Irish-born Thomas D'Arcy McGee's (1825-1868) changing political ideologies and their relation to British North American nationalism prior to Confederation. A romantic liberal nationalist in Ireland, McGee was forced to flee his homeland in 1848 for his role in the Young Ireland rebellion. Arriving in the United States, the author points out that McGee could not find a constituency for his political enthusiasms among his fellow Irish emigrants or the larger American society around them. Disgusted with American republicanism and democracy, McGee found intellectual comfort in ultramontanism and reaction. He immigrated to Montreal in 1857 and discovered a significant audience for his conservative vision. The author points out that McGee's reception in British North America suggests the existence of a British American nationalism prior to Confederation. He argues that to fail to recognize the existence and popularity of this national feeling is to fail to understand Confederation and how it was accomplished.

PhD dissertation

McGill University

Montreal

1976

x-397p.

en