Rituals of Migration

Kevin Kenny (Editor) Kevin Kenny is Glucksman Professor of History and Director of Glucksman Ireland House at NYU and the author of The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic: Policing Mobility in the Nineteenth-Century United States. Maddelena Marinari (Editor) Maddalena Marinari is Professor of History at Gustavus Adolphus College and the author of Unwanted: Italian and Jewish Mobilization Against Restrictive Immigration Laws, 1882-1965.

"In this splendid collection of essays, we encounter the literal rites of passage - the forms and habits by which both those who were leaving and those who were being left dealt with the great unknowns of emigration. Vivid, sympathetic and deeply moving, these essays reveal the intimacy and humanity behind the statistics." - Fintan O'Toole, author of We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland "Places the Irish and Italian experiences of migration especially to the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century side by side, thus offering us a fresh and invigorating way of viewing both experiences. These essays analyze with nuance and complexity the ritual of departure in both societies, followed by the arduous journeys with their own grim rituals and then the possibility of return. Kevin Kenny and Maddalena Marinari have enriched and enlarged our understanding of the Irish and Italian diasporas." - Colm Toibin, author of Brooklyn "Takes us beyond the sensationalist headlines about migration crises and border securities to offer a humanizing portrait of migrants, their families, and the rituals they practice as they leave their homelands and journey to new lives. In doing so, this incredible book presents a compelling new way to understand migration and the emotional toll it exacts. An essential new contribution to the study of global migration past and present." - Erika Lee, Bae Family Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor, Harvard Universityy, and author of America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States "Offers a very human journey into the lives of immigrant Irish and Italian families divided by distance and hardship. Careful research into Italian and Irish customs of a century and more ago provides new insights into two of history's greatest migrations - and a valuable framework for understanding the hopes and sorrows of today's migrants. Many readers will hear echoes of their own families in these accounts." - Paul Moses, author of An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York's Irish and Italians