Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America [Hardcover]

Kerby Miller (Author), Paul Wagner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1994

From noted scholar Kerby Miller and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paul Wagner comes a moving portrayal of the Irish exodus to the United States that explores the Irish experience through actual letters and memoirs of those who emigrated--a powerful story that speaks to anyone who has ever dared to pursue a drea. Companion to the forthcoming PBS-TV documentary. 110 photos.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A moving portrayal of three centuries of Irish emigration to the U.S., this stunning photoessay is the companion to a PBS documentary film which Wagner coproduced and directed. Focusing on eight families, he and Miller ( Emigrants and Exiles ) cull their letters, memoirs and photographs to explore common patterns in the Irish-American experience. Overcoming prejudice and discrimination, and often beginning life anew at the very bottom of the economic ladder, Irish-Americans built farms, industries and transportation networks, and achieved prominence in business, the labor movement, politics and religion. Yet many, ambivalent about the American dream, felt homesick for an often idealized Ireland, even as they found it increasingly difficult to transmit an Irish identity to their children. 20,000 first printing; History Book of the Month Club selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Miller and Wagner's decision to place at the center of their well-wrought text the letters that Irish immigrants wrote to their families and friends back home is most ingenious. No contemporary words could speak as clearly of the mixture of opportunity and loss those immigrants felt as these of Maurice Woulfe: "Every stone, gap and field in Cratloe and its surroundings are as clear in my mind as when I was home." The chapters cover the expected material (the potato famine, Tammany Hall, American political support for Irish nationalism), but what distinguishes this book is its focus on representative individual immigrants of no particular fame. These "exiles" (for such is the meaning of the Gaelic word for immigrant) were given an "American wake" on departure, for many would never see or be seen in their home villages again. Their words are simple and eloquent and memorable. A fine selection of historical photos illustrates this companion book to a PBS television documentary with the same title, set to air this fall and winter. Pat Monaghan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 132 pages
• Publisher: Elliott & Clark Pub. (August 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880216256
• ISBN-13: 978-1880216255
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,308,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A TRIBUTE TO THOSE WHO PERSEVERED, April 30, 2005

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America (Hardcover)

This superb folio-size companion to the PBS television special of the same name explores the history and psychology of Irish immigration to the United States.

With some 100 duotone photographs, it is an inspiring story of those who survived disease on the "coffin ships" as they attempted to reach our shores. The vivid text brings to life the sagas of Irish entrepreneurs who rose to prominence in politics, agriculture, business, religion and culture.

Most importantly it is the story of courageous human beings, people who left everything behind them to search for a better life. And, in so doing, they forged lasting impressions on past and present life in America. Never forgetting "home," they imagined and often lived the American dream.

This splendid book speaks volumes to the descendants of the Irish immigrants and to all who have a vision and struggle to make it reality.

- Gail Cooke