The Irish in Ontario: A Study in Rural History - Softcover

Akenson, Donald Harman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0773520295 ISBN 13: 9780773520295

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999

Synopsis

Hailed as one of the most important books on social sciences of the last fifty years by the Social Sciences Federation of Canada. Akenson argues that, despite the popular conception of the Irish as a city people, those who settled in Ontario were primarily rural and small-town dwellers. Though it is often claimed that the experience of the Irish in their homeland precluded their successful settlement on the frontier in North America, Akenson's research proves that the Irish migrants to Ontario not only chose to live chiefly in the hinterlands, but that they did so with marked success. Akenson also suggests that by using Ontario as an "historical laboratory" it is possible to make valid assessments of the real differences between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics, characteristics which he contends are much more precisely measurable in the neutral environment of central Canada than in the turbulent Irish homeland. While Akenson is careful not to over-generalize his findings, he contends that the case of Ontario seriously calls into question conventional beliefs about the cultural limitations of the Irish Catholics not only in Canada but throughout North America.

About this title

About the Author

Donald Harman Akenson is Douglas Professor of Canadian and Colonial History, Queen's University, the world's leading scholar on the Irish diaspora, and the author of several major works on the history of Judaism and Christianity.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0773520295
• ISBN 13: 9780773520295
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 448