| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 309 words from this article are provided below; about 573 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

J. Matthew Gallman. Receiving Erin's Children: Philadelphia, Liverpool, and the Irish Famine Migration, 1845–1855. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2000. Pp. xii, 306. Cloth $55.00, paper $19.95.

I once had the experience of working with an editor who insisted on selecting a photograph for the dust jacket of my book that was quite at variance with the book's argument. I cannot help but wonder whether J. Matthew Gallman faced something similar. After all, the sesquicentennial of the Great Famine emigration has provided the occasion for a wave of new book titles relating to mid-nineteenth-century Ireland, Irish emigration, and the Irish in the lands that received them. From a publisher's perspective, this is an opportunity not to be missed, and a market-savvy editor may have guided the choice of a title for Gallman's book. 1

I say this because, beginning with the acknowledgements, the author goes to great pains to clarify that this is not really a book about the Irish famine emigrants. In fact, in just the first chapter or so, Gallman moves Irish immigrants to Liverpool and to Philadelphia farther and farther from the center of his study. He puts this different ways as he seeks to clarify what his book is about. This is a book about two cities on either side of the Atlantic addressing "emerging policy dilemmas in the midst of the Irish famine" (p. ix). Or it is an effort "to compare two societies at a crucial moment in their history" (p. 5). Or it is about cities "addressing similar problems at roughly the same time" (p. 5). And do the Irish even have a role to play in this story? Gallman himself asks, "Were the Irish immigrants an impetus for reform, or did their presence in fact slow—or divert—processes that were already underway?" (p. 21). . . .

There are about 573 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.