"...a serious, solid, widely and deeply researched study that reveals a number of significant and interesting insights into Irish immigrant history in America." --Commonwealth "A fine book about the Irish in Philadelphia that is a combination of social history and a study of ten generations of a transplanted minority struggling initially for survival, then for advancement, affluence, recognition and identity against formidable odds." --Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography "A fund of good stories and some interesting conclusions on the extraordinarily adept transition managed by an essentially rural people into a rough and bustling urban environment in the mid-nineteenth century." --Philadelphia Inquirer "A valuable contribution that will prove interesting not only to historians but also to sociologists and students of urban problems." --Oscar Handlin
