'Groundbreaking. The survivors of the Great Hunger portrayed as never before. Plentiful Country will transform your understanding of the generation who survived. They emerge from the shadows in a story of determination and hope that forged New York as we know it' -- Fin Dwyer * author of A Lethal Legacy * 'While the city of New York was founded in the 1620s, the events of the 1840s on the other side of the world would transform it forever. By placing the first-hand testimonies of those who endured the Great Hunger at the heart of this history, Anbinder humanises the most dramatic event of the Irish story. The letters between the 'Old Country' and the 'New World' remind us that escape from the island meant survival, as hope faded in Ireland. A moving study that will open up the topography of New York in the mind of the reader anew' -- Donal Fallon * author of Three Castles Burning * 'In the rich and splendid Plentiful Country, Tyler Anbinder has-with the aid of the precious 'test' books of the Emigrant Savings Bank-parlayed his unmatched knowledge of pre-Civil War Irish immigration to the USA, and the strident nativist reaction it provoked, and has tellingly captured the lives (and the considerable accomplishments) of the thousands of Irish famine emigrants who settled in New York. That he has done so in lucid and accessible prose, with a wealth of striking detail, is a distinct bonus. A singular achievement from one of the foremost chroniclers of the 19th century immigrant experience' -- Myles Dungan * author of Four Killings * 'If Farrell and McCormick take us into the dark side of Irish America, Anbinder's brilliant book presents a much more optimistic narrative of the Famine Irish in New York. Drawing on new archival sources, Anbinder gives voice to a generation's struggle to escape from destitution and despair and its remarkable success in achieving dignity and stability. This is not a happy-clappy account, but the fact that it is just as persuasive as Bad Bridget reminds us that there is no one definitive version of the fate of the Irish migrants after the Famine' -- Fintan O'Toole 'With meticulous genealogical research, Anbinder fleshes out the lives of labourers and domestics, peddlers, barmen and saloon-keepers, making for an absorbing read' -- Breandįn Mac Suibhne * Sunday Independent *
