Boston's history is closely bound to that of its Irish community. The meeting of Brahmin and immigration was sudden; the potato famine of the 1840s forced thousands of starving farmers to flee to America in the span of just a few years. (By 1854 nearly one-third of Boston's entire population was Irish Catholic.) The suspicious and overtaxed community resented this intrusion; but while other U.S. cities erupted in anti-Catholic violence, Boston's oldest and newest citizens managed to emerge from this turbulent period, if not in complete harmony, then with a grudging respect for one another's rights. Much of this success may be attributed to one man: Bishop John Bernard Fitzpatrick. He was uniquely able to straddle the gulf that separated these two worlds, and to shape not only Boston's Catholic community, but in doing so, Boston itself. -- Publisher description. " ... Examination of Boston's social and political history in the period, as seen through the life and career of one man"--Inside back cover of book jacket.