Irish immigrants in the land of Canaan : letters and memoirs from colonial and revolutionary America, 1675-1815 / written & edited by Kerby A. Miller [and three others].

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan is a monumental and pathbreaking study of early Irish Protestant and Catholic migration to America. Through exhaustive research and sensitive analyses of the letters, memoirs, and other writings, the authors describe the variety and vitality of early Irish immigrant experiences, ranging from those of frontier farmers and seaport workers to revolutionaries and loyalists. Largely through the migrants own words, it brings to life the networks, work, and experiences of these immigrants who shaped the formative stages of American society and its Irish communities. The authors explore why Irishmen and women left home and how they adapted to colonial and revolutionary America, in the process creating modern Irish and Irish-American identities on the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan was the winner of the James S. Donnelly, Sr., Prize for Books on History and Social Sciences, American Council on Irish Studies.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This collection of correspondence and other primary accounts has been deftly arranged and skillfully annotated by four senior scholars of early Irish America. It presents the transatlantic connections between Ireland and North America in the 18th century in illuminating detail, taking them out of the shadow of the more voluminous networks of the 19th century. The most significant aspect of this remarkable study challenges the conventional view that Irish American religious animosities were simply transplanted grudges, exacerbated in the mid 19th century by the arrival of impoverished Catholic migrants. Instead, the editors emphasize the commonalities between Irish Presbyterians and Catholics during this period in contrast to their differences with the other religious and ethnic settlers of British North America. The republicanism of the late 18th century, with its enlightened and ecumenical "Irish" national identity, is presented as a historical opportunity to move beyond atavistic sectarianism. Yet the volume concludes with the reassertion of religious differences that accompanied the ensuing reactionary politics on both sides of the Atlantic, creating an antagonistic "Scotch-Irish" identity among Irish Protestants. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. M. J. O'Brien Franciscan University of Steubenville