Rich as it is in social history, Quinn's Book offers ample opportunity for fruitful discussion. In it, Kennedy ties together significant social events to show their interactions. Hence, the Irish migration, slavery, and the Civil War are pulled together into an interpretation of history.

Kennedy's primary linking technique is characterization: Characters participate in multiple events, mixing the Irish Americans with the escaped slaves and placing both in the context of the Civil War.

Thus a discussion that focuses on the lives of individual characters is likely to blossom into a discussion of America's social history, perhaps even into a discussion of how we of today view the lives of the Americans of the min-nineteenth century.

1. What other novels use the Civil War as part of a bildungsroman theme, a story of a character's growth and education? How does Quinn's Book compare to them?

2. What is the...