This volume takes a new look from a Canadian perspective at the so-called “Great Emigration,” referring to the departure from Iceland between 1870 and 1920 of over 20,000 people, representing almost 30% of the nation’s entire population. Over these decades, the majority of emigrants went to Canada, although several important settlements began earlier in Utah, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Author Marian McKenna tells their dramatic story, tracing the roots of discontent in the homeland, the origins of the first tentative immigrating groups, and the beginnings of a mass emigration. This resulted in relatively large settlements in parts of Ontario, Nova Scotia, and in Manitoba’s New Iceland. Emphasis is placed on the plight of the basically rural, agrarian emigrants and the difficulties they faced adjusting to the rigors of their new environment.

This modern saga, embracing some fifty years of many of the most fateful, stirring events in Iceland’s tumultuous history, deserves a retelling for not only those of Icelandic descent, but for all those interested in the human condition and in these pioneering immigrants whose labors have helped to build the Canada and United States as we know today.

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