Explains the reasons for the large Irish emigration, and examines the problems they faced adjusting to new lives in the United States.

This book comprises the first full-length comparison of Scottish, Irish, English and Welsh migration within Europe in the early modern period. Divided into four sections - 'Immigrants and Civilian Life', 'Diplomats and Travellers', 'Protestants and Patrons' and 'Catholics at Home and Abroad' - it offers a new perspective on several themes. Contributors elucidate networks of traders, soldiers, as well as scholars and religious figures. Material regarding patterns of residence (sometimes of the nature of an enclave, sometimes not), places of worship, choice of marital partners, and cases of return migration, is presented, the results demonstrating clearly the fruitfulness of pursuing a comparative approach to seventeenth-century British and Irish history. Contributors are Waldemar Kowalski, Peter Davidson, Douglas Catterall, Steve Murdoch, Ciaran O’Scea, Éamon Ó Ciosáin, Igor Pérez Tostado, Kathrin Zickermann, Barry Robertson, Siobhan Talbott, Polona Vidmar, David J.B. Trim, Tom McInally, Thomas O’Connor and Caroline Bowden.

The American Irish: A History, is the first concise, general history of its subject in a generation. It provides a long-overdue synthesis of Irish-American history from the beginnings of emigration in the early eighteenth century to the present day. While most previous accounts of the subject have concentrated on the nineteenth century, and especially the period from the famine (1840s) to Irish independence (1920s), The American Irish: A History incorporates the Ulster Protestant emigration of the eighteenth century and is the first book to include extensive coverage of the twentieth century. Drawing on the most innovative scholarship from both sides of the Atlantic in the last generation, the book offers an extended analysis of the conditions in Ireland that led to mass migration and examines the Irish immigrant experience in the United States in terms of arrival and settlement, social mobility and assimilation, labor, race, gender, politics, and nationalism. It is ideal for courses on Irish history, Irish-American history, and the history of American immigration more generally.

Skin-clad barbarians ransacking Rome remains a popular image of the "decline and fall" of the Roman Empire, but why, when, and how the Empire actually fell are still matters of debate among students of classical history. In this pioneering study, Ralph W. Mathisen examines the "fall" in one part of the western Empire, Gaul, to better understand the shift from Roman to Germanic power that occurred in the region during the fifth century AD Mathisen uncovers two apparently contradictory trends. First, he finds that barbarian settlement did provoke significant changes in Gaul, including the disappearance of most secular offices under the Roman imperial administration, the appropriation of land and social influence by the barbarians, and a rise in the overall level of violence. Yet he also shows that the Roman aristocrats proved remarkably adept at retaining their rank and status. How did the aristocracy hold on? Mathisen rejects traditional explanations and demonstrates that rather than simply opposing the barbarians, or passively accepting them, the Roman aristocrats directly responded to them in various ways. Some left Gaul. Others tried to ignore the changes wrought by the newcomers. Still others directly collaborated with the barbarians, looking to them as patrons and holding office in barbarian governments. Most significantly, however, many were willing to change the criteria that determined membership in the aristocracy. Two new characteristics of the Roman aristocracy in fifth-century Gaul were careers in the church and greater emphasis on classical literary culture. These findings shed new light on an age in transition. Mathisen's theory that barbarian integration into Roman society was a collaborative process rather than a conquest is sure to provoke much thought and debate. All historians who study the process of power transfer from native to alien elites will want to consult this work.

A comprehensive study of the Hong Kong emigrants both within the context of their home society and within their new host communities. The contributers include geographers, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, a political scientist, an educationist, an urban planner, and a sinologist. The volume is divided into seven parts: setting the scene; the historical and geographical context; Canada; Australasia; US; a European and an Asian destination (the UK and Singapore); and conclusion ("Migration from Hong Kong: Current Trends and Future Agendas"). Paper edition (432-2), $27.50. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Through the use of paintings and objects from Australian and British collections, the story is told of hardships in 19th century England, Scotland and Ireland and the factors that encouraged or forced people to emigrate to Australia, an unknown and strange land, reached after a perilous voyage.