Receiving Erin's Children — Philadelphia, Liverpool, and the Irish Famine Migration, 1845-1855

Gallman examines how citizens and policymakers in Philadelphia and Liverpool dealt with such issues as poverty, disease, poor sanitation, crime, sectarian conflict, and juvenile delinquency. By considering how two cities of comparable population and dimensions responded to similar challenges, he sheds new light on familiar questions about distinctive national characteristics?without resorting to claims of "American exceptionalism." In this critical era of urban development, English and American cities often evolved in analogous ways, Gallman notes. But certain crucial differences?in location, material conditions, governmental structures, and voluntaristic traditions, for example?inspired varying approaches to urban problem solving on either side of the Atlantic.