'âfrom time to time a study comes along that truly can be called âpath breakingâ âseminalâ âessentialâ a âmust read. â How the Irish Became White is such a study. ' John Bracey W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies University of Massachussetts Amherst The Irish came to America in the eighteenth century fleeing a homeland under foreign occupation and a caste system that regarded them as the lowest form of humanity. In the new country â a land of opportunity â they found a very different form of social hierarchy one that was based on the color of a personâs skin. Noel Ignatievâs 1995 book â the first published work of one of Americaâs leading and most controversial historians â tells the story of how the oppressed became the oppressors; how the new Irish immigrants achieved acceptance among an initially hostile population only by proving that they could be more brutal in their oppression of African Americans than the nativists. This is the story of How the Irish Became White. . Language: English