This volume of first-person accounts of more than 100 letters edited by Fitzpatrick (modern history, Trinity Coll., Dublin) is a major new addition to scholarship. The author's detailed biographies of the correspondents place them in historical context by tracing their Irish backgrounds and Australian careers. Included is the personal correspondence, accompanied by contemporary engravings and photographs, of 14 families of Irish emigrants to the Australian colonies from 1843 to 1906. Librarians will especially appreciate the chapter on sources, a bibliographic essay discussing Australian and Irish migration sources, and Irish Australian letters. This excellent, scholarly work is a solid contribution to the study of popular culture and to the history of emigration. As such, it is an important acquisition for libraries collecting Irish and Australian history and emigration history. Highly recommended for academic libraries.
Judith P. Reid, Library of Congress
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Patrick O'Farrell, The Sydney Morning Herald
'I am humbled by what Professor Fitzpatrick has done so exhaustively and so well . . . It would be hard, if not impossible, to better his treatment of the exercise he has undertaken; this is a showpiece, a master class, in the handling of a certain type of historical source.'
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