Kerby A. Miller

What I found particularly illuminating in this book were the excerpts from emigrant's letters about the ambivalence of their emigration - for so many it was an exile, even as it was for some a necessity and for others an opportunity - this feeling of exile affected their life here and lives of those left behind in Ireland.
Compare a contemporary Irish-American essayist, Peter Quinn in his "Looking for Jimmy" (2007) - for a take on how such feelings persist even to this day.

A very good book documenting waves of Irish immigration to the US in the 19th century. Very useful too, because it outlines conditions and problems present in Ireland which lead to immigration. Miller makes a particularly provocative thesis about the Irish language, viz. that the grammatical structure of Irish influenced Irish peasants to be passive in the face of English colonialism.

A monumental work that painstakingly examines the experiences of 19th century Irish emigrants. Miller includes extensive chapters on pre-famine and post-famine Irish experience.