Receiving Erin's Children

“A book that makes a welcome contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century urban history. . . . [A] valuable and important study.” — Historian

“[This book] makes an important contribution to both immigration and urban history as well as to the history of public welfare. . . . Gallman’s comparison of social policies and programs in Liverpool and Philadelphia is a greatly important tale of two cities to those who study immigration history, urban history, the history of poverty, and the history of public welfare. . . . [He] offer[s] a new way to evaluate and understand the responses of beleaguered municipalities on both sides of the ocean.” — Reviews in American History

“This is a truly impressive study of comparative urban development. Matthew Gallman has used a rich body of sources to make an argument both careful and imaginative.” — Roger Lane, Haverford College

“This is a truly comparative study that grapples with the meaning of the Irish famine migration in the context of American and English urban development and reform. As he illustrates how the Irish migration influenced urban politics and policies in Philadelphia and Liverpool, Gallman engages in a fascinating way with big questions of the national characters of the United States and Britain.” — Jon Gjerde, University of California, Berkeley