European Migrants: Global And Local Perspectives

During the nineteenth century, fifty million Europeans departed the continent for the Americas, dwarfing previous transatlantic migrations. Many more left their homes seeking better economic opportunities in the towns and cities of Europe. This innovative volume offers new perspectives on these mass external and internal movements by examining regional trends in nineteenth-century Europe, the world economy, and links between global and local change.
Leading authorities from a variety of disciplines address overarching questions about the transatlantic migrations, including the connections between long-term shifts in European migration and social history, mobility in modern Europe, and the complexity of women's migrations to the United States. The contributors also investigate European migration from a general demographic perspective. They consider the ways in which migration has long been embedded in the family, landholding, and production systems of Western Europe, and they examine the impulse of economic and political transformations in the countryside. The volume concludes with essays that provide a sweeping comparative framework for the acculturation of migrants at their destinations.
Clearly written in an accessible style, this ground-breaking work sets the standard for future studies of historical and contemporary migrations.