Description: During the last decade studies have indicated that migration has been a normal, structural element of human societies throughout history. Progress in migration and settlement studies under this new paradigm has been so substantial that a new state of the art is needed. This book presents a reconsideration of current theoretical perspectives encompassing enlightened insights in diverging specialisms in the field of migration history, such as slavery studies, ethnic history, macro-economic migration studies, and gypsy studies. The seventeen essays in this volume, written by leading scholars in the field, collectively represent a pioneering effort in migration and settlement studies. They address the problems of ongoing specialization (and hence the need for synthesis) and the difficulties of integrating the consequences of this new paradigm into general histories.
Review Quotes: «This is a classic, perhaps the classic of migration history. First published in 1997, it has received two more editions in 1999 and 2005 in the most respectable series on "International and Comparative Social History" issued by the International Institute for Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam. [...] The bibliography of more than 1000 titles is a treasury in itself. With this book the IISH has erected a monumental starting point to a stream of literature on migration still flowing strongly.» (Jörn Janssen, CLR News)