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These settlements are in Peterborough, which is located in south-central Ontario; in Miramichi, which is in northeast New Brunswick; and in the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. The material folk culture and morphology of settlement in each of the three areas is described in detail and compared to Irish homeland forms. Mannion starts by discussing the migration of people from their homeland of Ireland across the Atlantic Ocean to eastern Canada. He contends that the movement of the Irish across the ocean resulted in a rapid loss of cultural trait but the rate at which this happened varied in the three study areas. Mannion found that cultural transfer and the durability of transferred traits was apparently greatest in Peterborough, where some homeland traits and trait complexes were readily reproduced and took a while to change because when homeland traits were introduced, they usually did not last very long. He also noted that there were distinct variations between the three study areas both in the rate of transfer and of individual traits although for some traits and trait complexes, the pattern of transfer in all study areas was somewhat similar. This is evident from the farms and the layout of them. This was one of the least transferred traits examined by Mannion. The Irish settlement patterns were transferred more. He found that in all of the study areas though that the Irish field systems were less likely to be reproduced than the farm technology and there was contrast in the extent of transfer of house interiors and exteriors. Next, Mannion shows how the Irish migrants experienced cultural change when they arrived and settled in the New World. He feels that since so much revolution, transformation, and growth took place in the Irish peasant culture in the 1700’s, the Irish immigrants had less changes to make to be able to survive. The book ensues that once an Irishmen left his native land he said farewell to his kin, neighbors, and almost everything that was customary and familiar to him. The move was nevertheless very overwhelming. Mannion contends the immigrants from Ireland were uprooted. He says they were disconnected to their relationships and obligations that brought them together in the homeland and therefore social order could be constructed immediately in the New World. For those who settled in urban areas, there was little homeland experience or tradition that made adaptation easier. He also says it was somewhat less difficult in the countryside to adapt because immigrants continued their old occupation but the rural settlers had to endure living in isolation in an unfamiliar environment. Mannion uses maps to show the various areas settled in Peterborough and Miramichi. According to the book, the major reason for Irish immigration to the New World was economic distress in the homeland. This is the what the next portion of discussion deals with. The abundance of land and its low cost led to an increasingly large agrarian economy. Farms did not have to be subdivided and clachan forms of farming that were used in Ireland did not evolve, except for the Cape Shore. Changing patterns of settlement reflected an emphasis on the fishing industry. Mannion states farming persisted in the area but sons of the Irish immigrants primarily became fisherman. He also mentions that many of the people who lived on the coast subdivided the land and worked in close partnership with relatives who fished jointly. Mannion then tells about the land clearing in these areas. He contends in the book that the rate at which the land was cleared was governed by the nature of the economy and differences in the amount of land farmed influenced the rates of cultural transfer and survival. He says it was more economical for the immigrants to clear land quickly and farm it extensively on the frontier, especially if a grain economy dominated as it did in Peterborough. Marginal climate, soil that was undesirable to farm, and opportunities for alternate employment discouraged commercial farming in Avalon and to some extent Miramichi. Mannion then tells how the farms in these areas remained small and a more labor intensive agriculture evolved. He claims settlers were too much involved in clearing land or fishing to pursue pastoral farming. As technology improved though, more capital intensive forms of agriculture appeared. The book then goes on to talk about the increasing technology used in farming. It tells how increasing links with urban centers were significant in the growing standardization of farm technology. Factory made implements were replacing homemade tools and a more scientific agriculture was developing in eastern Canada. Labor shortages was motivation to mechanize. Technological innovation and change, according to Mannion, were closely related to farm size. He makes this evident by showing how in Peterborough once the area cultivated exceeded an immigrants homeland farm acreage, some traditional tools and techniques were discarded. In Avalon though, Mannion says the traditional techniques remained in tact. All of the technological advances were for economic purposes as well. The next section of the book deals with the farm outbuildings. Mannion claims that the trait complex least affected by economic conditions was the farmhouse. He tells how some architectural aspects of folk housing were modified to cater to New World economic conditions, but the interior layouts and furnishings were mostly transferable of Irish trait complexes to all of the study areas. He then shows how the economies in the three areas are different but the houses were very much alike and almost identical. The outbuildings were more sensitive to economic change but were not influenced as greatly as the farm technology. Next Mannion discusses the different types of dwelling houses that were lived in by the Irish. He divides the houses into three basic types. He discusses the kind of houses lived in by the Irish in their homeland and then about the houses they lived in when they migrated to the New World. Illustrations are used to show the different types of houses the Irish immigrants lived in at the different study areas. The interior, like the furniture used in the houses, and the floor plans of the houses are then discussed next. Finally there is a summary of the transfer and adaptation of the Irish immigrants settling in the study areas. This section of the book gives a quick overview of the variations that took place in the different sections of eastern Canada from the time Irish immigrants lived in their homeland. He then points out how broad and complex the Atlantic migration is and how past studies have been too general in their discussions and there is a need for a more quantitative oriented analysis on this subject. I feel that there is a lot of good and effective information contained in this book. I believe that because the majority of this book is field inquiry and the information contained in it is more effective because it comes straight from the source. The personal interviews and the observations made in the book I believe, are very effective and descriptive. I also think this gives the study contained in the book more credibility. I think the information about how life was in Ireland and then how it was in the New World was especially interesting. I believe this because the Irish that immigrated to the eastern section of Canada just left their life and family in their homeland to come to a foreign land that they did not know if they would be able to survive to try to make a better life for themselves. I understand that many of the Irish immigrants were very poor peasants and desperately wanted a better life but migrating from Ireland to eastern Canada was a very big risk to take and the immigrants were extremely courageous to make the journey. I also thought that the chapter on the house dwellings contained good information.. I feel this way because it is sort of interesting to see what the interiors and exteriors of the old 18th century homes looked like and how they were constructed. I also believe the transfer and adaptation section was good because it brought the book together at the end in an orderly fashion and reiterated the some of the main points the author made in the book. I also thought that the illustrations in the book were useful in being able to give you some sense of what things looked like back then. I also think tables and charts contain some good information as well. This is some of the good and effective information I believe the author relates in this book. I really enjoyed this book because it contained so much interesting information so I don’t believe there are too many weak points. I though the chapter on the field systems was a bit dull though. Compared to the rest of the book, I though that this chapter was not as good and didn’t really contain information that was too interesting. This is about the only portion of the book I believe to be weak. I also found it difficult at times to distinguish between the three study areas involved in the book. The book contains some extra sections in it. It contains a lengthy index and a extensive bibliography. The bibliography is twenty four pages long and consists a lot of secondary information from many magazines, books, newspapers, journals, and expert testimony. The bibliography is incomplete and does not contain a lot of the works used because several of the works were omitted because of their brevity or poor quality of scholarship and the author believes there are many more references he should have found. The book also contains a glossary because there are many different dialect terms used. Appendixes are also printed in this book that contain information on the diversity among the immigrants and the average size of the farms in the study areas. I believe one of the ways to improve this book would be to have actual photos in it. The pictures in the book are just drawing which do have the same effect as photographs. Giving the pictures in the book too would be another way to improve the book. These are some of the things I would do to improve the book. As a writer I would have to avoid a couple of things after reading this book. In terms of style, I would try to avoid referring back and forth from Europe and the New World as often as the author did because it just made the book more confusing. I think having a separate chapter on how it was in Ireland and the rest of Europe would be better instead of having to keep referring to between the two regions. In terms of research I don’t think I would use as many sources as the author did. I would choose not to do this because you sometimes will get information that is not as consistent when you have so many sources. These are two thing I would avoid as a writer after reading this book. Overall I though the book was well written and contained a lot of good quality information that is interesting. Bibliography: Word Count: 1923
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