Book Review

Between 1845 and 1860, more than a million people from England, Scotland, and Wales made their way to the United States, one of the major unsung migrations of the middle of the nineteenth century. Although there are some historical studies of this movement, for the most part it has been neglected and is difficult to make concrete. Part of the trouble is that the movement from Ireland in this period has overshadowed that from the remainder of the British Isles. Part of the trouble is the relative shortage of data. Part of the trouble is that the new arrivals integrated into their new society too well. But a large part of the trouble is also that no two scholars have managed to focus on the same universe of people from the same area of origin or on the same area of reception. Most of the earlier literature talks about "emigration" rather than "immigration." The area of origin has been variously labeled the "United Kingdom," the "British Isles," and "Britain," while the destination has been the "United States," "North America," "British North America," or even "America." Those geographical identifiers obviously do not all encompass the same territory and have made it difficult to get a clear fix on the migration. Moreover, most of the previous studies have included the Irish, although William E. Van Vugt resolutely excludes them here, regrettably without ever explaining his reasons for this decision.

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