History in Focus

Details from 'A Terrible Record', an illustration from 1881. Erin holds the population figures for Ireland between 1841 and 1881, whilst an emigrant ship leaves in the background.

Reproduced by permission of The John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

View the full illustration (37KB)

The caption in the full illustration reads: 'ERIN - In forty years I have lost, through the operation of no natural law, more than Three Millions of my Sons and Daughters, and they, the Young and the Strong, leaving behind the Old and Infirm to weep and to die. Where is this to end?'.

Book reviews

The reviews listed below are taken mostly from the IHR's online reviews journal Reviews in History, except Lucille Campey's review of A Global Clan: Scottish Migrant Networks and Identities since the Eighteenth Century, which is a specially-commissioned review.

Africa Encountered: European Contacts and Evidence 1450-1700

by P.E.H. Hair
Review by Robin Law
Response by P.E.H. Hair

Ancient China and Its Enemies. The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History

by Nicola Di Cosmo
Review by Yuri Pines

The Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914. Global Connections and Comparisons

by C. A. Bayly
Review by Catherine Hall

Changing National Identities at the Frontier: Texas and New Mexico, 1800-1850

by Andrés Reséndez
Review by James E. Crisp
Response by Andrés Reséndez

Family, Commerce and Religion in London and Cologne: Anglo-German Immigrants, c.1000-c.1300

by Joseph P. Huffman
Review by Bjorn Weiler
Response by Joseph P. Huffman

Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History

by A. Dirk Moses (ed.)
Review by Alan Atkinson
Response by A. Dirk Moses

A Global Clan: Scottish Migrant Networks and Identities since the Eighteenth Century

by Angela McCarthy (ed.)
Review by Lucille Campey
Response by Angela McCarthy

The Great Famine and Beyond: Irish Migrants in Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

by Donald M. MacRaild (ed.)
Review by Paul O'Leary
Response by Donald M. MacRaild

Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1840–1937: 'The Desired Haven'

by Angela McCarthy
Review by Ged Martin
Response by Angela McCarthy

Making Sense of the Census Revisited. Census Records for England and Wales, 1801-1901. A Handbook for Historical Researchers

by Edward Higgs
Review by R. J. Morris

Medieval Frontiers: Concepts and Practices

by David Abulafia and Nora Berend (eds.)
Review by Naomi Standen

The Mongols and the West, 1221–1410

by Peter Jackson
Review by Antti Ruotsala

Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304-1589

by Donald Ostrowski
Review by Will Ryan
Response by Donald Ostrowski

Narratives of Exile and Return

by Mary Chamberlain
Review by Paul Thompson

Other Immigrants: The Global Origins of the American People

by David M. Reimers
Review by Eric Homberger

The Population of Europe

by Massimo Livi-Bacci
Review by Andrew Hinde

Strangers Settled Here Amongst Us - Policies, Perceptions and the Presence of Aliens in Elizabethan England

by Laura Hunt Yungblut
Review by Nigel Goose

Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants

by A. James Hammerton and Alistair Thomson
Review by Catherine Kevin

Created Autumn 2006 by the Institute of Historical Research.
Copyright notice.