This book comprises the first full-length comparison of Scottish, Irish, English and Welsh migration within Europe in the early modern period. The contributions demonstrate the fruitfulness of pursuing a comparative approach to seventeenth-century British and Irish history.

Explains the reasons for the large Irish emigration, and examines the problems they faced adjusting to new lives in the United States.

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In Search of a Better Life challenges the traditional histories of British and Irish migration, the stories of oppression and exile that form an essential part of the existing literature. By no means were all migrants forced to leave their country by circumstances; many looked forward to a better life abroad. They were largely opportunists rather than victims, whether financed by the state or by landlords or philanthropists, or, as was the case for the majority, by themselves or their families. This was a huge movement of people that formed part of a European exodus to the New World. In placing British and Irish migration alongside each other, there is recognition of the commonalities among both sets of emigrants that will surprise many readers. The poor condition of labourers in 1840s Dorset and Wiltshire were akin to those found in County Cork during the Famine years. British and Irish emigrants were commonly found on the same ships en route to the Americas and Australasia, both settling in predominantly English-speaking countries. With case studies by a variety of contributors, set within the broader context of current scholarship, this compilation features new research on a popular subject which still resonates today. It will prove particularly useful for family historians.

Whilst much recent scholarly work has sought to place early modern British history within a broader continental context, most of this has focused on western Europe. In order to redress the balance, this new study by David Worthington explores the connections linking British and Irish emigrants, exiles, travellers and merchants with the two major dynastic conglomerates east of the Rhine, the Austrian Habsburg lands, and Poland-Lithuania. This examination of the diverse range of Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English religious, intellectual, political, military and commercial contacts with central Europe provides not only a more balanced view of British history, but also continues the process of reintegrating the histories of eastern and western Europe.

Studies on exile in the 19th century tend to be restricted to national histories. This volume is the first to offer a broader view by looking at French, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Czech and German political refugees who fled to England after the European revolutions of 1848/49. The contributors examine various aspects of their lives in exile such as their opportunities for political activities, the forms of political cooperation that existed between exiles from different European countries on the one hand and with organizations and politicians in England on the other and, finally, the attitude of the host country towards the refugees, and their perceptions of the country which had granted them asylum. Sabine Freitag is Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute in London. Rudolf Muhs is Lecturer in German History at the University of London (Royal Holloway).