Real Lace was not what I expected. It's by a social historian and I expected an explanation of how Irish Catholic immigrants rose in society as a group. Instead, it's the gossipy tale of a handful of intermarried families who created their own society because the established upper crust saw them as arrivistes. Birmingham doesn't do anything to dispute that; the Donnelleys and Cuddihys and Butlers come across as stereotypes - brawling, charming drinkers who see no need to educate daughters (and educate sons only enough to advance in business). I was expecting something more along the lines of the late-1990s PBS series The Irish in America which focused on the broader diaspora who, rather than being in the society pages, went from laborers to professionals in two or three generations and by design rather than by chance.
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