The Windsor Locks Canal - by J Christopher Kervick (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Windsor Locks Canal

Yankee Enterprise and Irish Muscle

J. Christopher Kervick's compelling new book touches all the bases in the making of classic history. It is the story of human enterprise, ambition, invention, raw manpower, and the clash of cultures. This uniquely American accomplishment could not have happened without the unlikely convergence of three social and economic groups, including the wealthy merchants who conceived and promoted the canal, the brilliant young civil engineers who designed it, and the over four hundred Irish immigrant laborers who toiled from dawn to dusk in often lethal conditions to forge a better life in America. The synergy of these distinct forces created the backbone of Connecticut's first planned, water-powered industrial center, one that remains profitable to this day.

Kervick skillfully reveals the story of Connecticut's bold actions to retain its social and economic prominence as a leader of the industrial revolution. The ripple from this ambitious economic undertaking permanently expanded Connecticut's ethnic and religious demographics. The book also demonstrates how the longstanding and fierce rivalry between Hartford and New Haven almost doomed the project from its inception.

The Windsor Locks Canal, Yankee Enterprise and Irish Muscle is about people as much it is about events. Not only does Kervick tell the story of the Windsor Locks Canal in far greater detail than it has been told before, but he humanizes the Irish Canal laborers along the way. In many instances, he introduces the reader to these remarkable men by name, the result of over 20 years of painstaking research to answer the basic question, "Who are these unknown laborers to whom we owe so much?"

Review Quotes

Inspired by personal curiosity and his own Irish heritage, Kervick has produced a dazzlingly profound, complex, and moving history of the Windsor Locks Canal. Meticulous research and compelling storytelling recreate a forgotten time and bring this narrative to life. Kervick usefully places the building of the canal in the historical contexts of the canal movement in America, the local need for more effective inland transportation, and the dire conditions in Ireland at the dawn of the 19^th century. He honors the legacy of the immigrant Irish laborers, naming them individually and telling their stories in detail and with compassion. Outstanding scholarship and empathic narrative combine to make The Windsor Locks Canal a must read addition to any bookshelf, sure to appeal to readers both in the US and Ireland.

Rachael Sealy Lynch, PhD.

Professor Emerita

English, Irish Studies

University of Connecticut