[Bonaparte]

"None of this was depicted."

Why would Scorsese want to depict 17th and 18th century trends?

[Wallace T.]

Most of the movie is set in the 1861-63 period, so 17th and 18th Century trends are not relevant. However, "Gangs of New York" did not show the considerable body of pro-Southern sentiment among Irish immigrants in the North. It did exist in part because of the Cavalier-Catholic alliance in support of the Stuart dynasty. Historians like David Hackett Fischer and social commentators like Kevin Phillips have written on the roots of American culture and social conflict even in our time in the controversies of the British Isles in the 17th and 18th Centuries.