¡°A superb revisionist history of the Famine generation¡¦ Anbinder...provide[s] a series of riveting and deeply personal stories of men and women who moved up the socioeconomic ladder through hard work, entrepreneurial vision and a wee bit of luck.¡±¡ªThe Wall Street Journal
¡°Anbinder details the human horrors of the potato famine in unadorned prose that only adds to its emotional impact¡¦ [and] weaves together individual immigrants¡¯ stories with more general history to make this a remarkably perceptive and engaging portrait of American immigration history.¡±¡ªBooklist
¡°[An] eye-opening account¡¦ Readers will be engrossed.¡±¡ªPublishers Weekly
"Plentiful Country is a masterpiece of research and writing. Tyler Anbinder has outdone himself by weaving the lives of individual immigrants into a sweeping history of the Irish in New York. From their struggles in Ireland before the famine to the crammed-full ships that carried them over, from their lives as servants, laborers, and artisans to their fanatical savings, ingenious enterprises, and movements across the United States, this book vividly captures the rich history of a complex people."¡ªT.J. Stiles, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The First Tycoon and Custer's Trials
¡°On a recent visit to Ireland, I saw one of the docks where, it was said, desperate, starving women once held up their children, beseeching strangers to take them to a new life in America. In Tyler Anbinder¡¯s moving, expertly told narrative, I learned what happened to that generation of immigrants and their descendants. This is a hugely important and too little-known part of the American story.¡±¡ªAdam Hochschild, New York Times bestselling author of Spain in Our Hearts and American Midnight
¡°Plentiful Country celebrates the survivors of Ireland's Great Famine, who are so often cast as dazed immigrants unprepared and unsuited for life in New York and America. Drawing on a decade of research, Tyler Anbinder presents them instead as women and men with agency: adept learners who, by both seizing and creating opportunities for themselves, remade their new country. They speak for themselves in this book, in word and deed.¡±¡ªHasia Diner, New York University, and author of Erin¡¯s Daughters in America