The Irish Potato Famine caused the migration of more than two million individuals who sought refuge in the United States and Canada. In contrast to previous studies, which have tended to focus on only one destination, this collection allows readers to evaluate the experience of transatlantic Famine refugees in a comparative context. Featuring new and innovative scholarship by both established and emerging scholars of Irish America and Irish Canada, it carefully dissects the connection that arose between Ireland and North America during the famine years (1845-1851).

In the more than 150 years since the onset of Ireland's Great Famine, historians have intensely scrutinized the causes, the year-by-year events, and the consequences of his human catastrophe. Who was to blame? Were the hunger and misery inevitable? Did the famine have revolutionary effects on the Irish economy? How did it change the nature of Irish religion? This new study complements the wealth of existing literature on the social, cultural, and political aspects of the Famine and invites the reader to consider the fate of the Irish refugees in their new home lands.

Evaluates the experience of transatlantic Irish Famine refugees in a comparative context, including those who sought refuge in the United States and in Canada.

About the Author

MARGARET M. MULROONEY is Associate Professor of American History at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. She is also the author of Black Powder, White Lace: The du Pont Irish and Cultural Identity in Nineteenth-Century America (2002).

Book Information
ISBN 9780275976705
Author Margaret Mulrooney
Format Hardback
Page Count 168
Imprint Praeger Publishers Inc
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc