ABSTRACT
Throughout the nineteenth century, the longstanding, antiquated societal structures of Europe began to collapse and weaken, leaving millions of people homeless, disoriented, and helpless. Irish immigrants are among one of the largest groups of Europeans who travelled to the United States during the nineteenth century, and Maguire is correct that after arriving in America, many immigrants chose to remain in New York City or other urban centers along the United States' eastern seaboard. Precarity designates that politically induced condition in which certain populations suffer from failing social and economic networks of support and become differentially exposed to injury, violence, and death. The strength of the affective bonds individuals develop toward their place of residence often determines their strength of attachment to place-or, what some place attachment theorists refer to as "neighborhood attachment".
