Receiving Erin's Children: Philadelphia, Liverpool, and the Irish Famine Migration, 1845-1855 - Softcover

Gallman, J. Matthew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080784845X ISBN 13: 9780807848456

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000

Synopsis

Between 1845 and 1855, 2 million Irish men and women fled their famine-ravaged homeland, many to settle in large British and American cities that were already wrestling with a complex array of urban problems. In this innovative work of comparative urban history, Matthew Gallman looks at how two cities, Philadelphia and Liverpool, met the challenges raised by the influx of immigrants.

Gallman examines how citizens and policymakers in Philadelphia and Liverpool dealt with such issues as poverty, disease, poor sanitation, crime, sectarian conflict, and juvenile delinquency. By considering how two cities of comparable population and dimensions responded to similar challenges, he sheds new light on familiar questions about distinctive national characteristics--without resorting to claims of "American exceptionalism." In this critical era of urban development, English and American cities often evolved in analogous ways, Gallman notes. But certain crucial differences--in location, material conditions, governmental structures, and voluntaristic traditions, for example--inspired varying approaches to urban problem solving on either side of the Atlantic.

About this title

Book Description:

"A book that makes a welcome contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century urban history. . . . [A] valuable and important study."-- Historian

From the Inside Flap:

This work of comparative history looks at how two rapidly growing cities, Philadelphia and Liverpool, coped with the urban challenges raised by the influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 080784845X
• ISBN 13: 9780807848456
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 322