Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigration to America

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. (Aug.)