Introduction
Keyword(s):
Why do we need another study on European mass migration to the United States during the long nineteenth century at a time when many historians are encouraging a shift away from an Atlantic and modern focus that has long dominated the sub-discipline?1 The answer is that we need such a study because one recurring question remains unanswered: how did the migrant trade evolve with the introduction of steamships and influence the relocation of approximately thirty-five million people across the North Atlantic during the long nineteenth century? More than half a century ago, Maldwyn Jones, Frank Thistlewaite and Rolf Engelsing drew attention to the fact that transatlantic migration was determined by trade routes....