UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Edited by Arthur Gribben
Introduction by Ruth-Ann Harris

New perspectives on Ireland’s Great Famine and the mass immigration to the United States

Between 1845 and 1855, nearly 1.5 million Irish women, men, and children sailed to America to escape the Great Famine, triggered by successive years of potato blight. The famine and resulting emigration had a profound impact not only on the history of Ireland, but on that of England and North America as well. This volume of original essays commemorates the 150th anniversary of these epochal events and sheds new light on both the consequences of the famine and the experience of the Irish in America.

The essays fall into three sections, the first of which examines the changes that took place in Ireland as a result of the famine. The second section explores the evolving perceptions of the famine over time, from the conflicted reactions of the Protestant reading public to coverage in the North American press. The third section looks at public memories of the famine and their role in the creation of Irish American identity.

"This book is a major contribution to its field. It contains important details that are missing from many of the previous works on the subject of the famine. The scholarship is sound, and is often based on primary sources that have never been examined in this context before. The data are consistently compelling, fresh, and well documented. . . . Any college with an Irish studies program will find the book indispensable."

Mary Ellen Cohane, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Arthur Gribben teaches at California State University, Northridge.

Ruth-Ann Harris is adjunct professor of history and Irish studies at Boston College.

Irish Studies / American Studies
280 pp.
LC 98-8432
$50.00s library cloth edition, ISBN 1-55849-172-4
$24.95t paper, ISBN 1-55849-173-2
1999
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