Ken McGee’s latest book, The Great Hope of the World, is set in 1874, at a time when St. Louis was very much an immigrant city. It was also, not unlike present-day St. Louis, a place where there was a lot of rhetoric about jobs and economics, where dissent was met with a strong police presence, and where many native-born Americans feared immigrants, even if they didn’t know any. At the time, the city boasted a large Irish community and a growing Italian and Eastern European population. These immigrants’ arrival provided the city’s business leaders with cheap labor, which, along with the railroads, promised to turn St. Louis into a booming metropolis. And for immigrants, this was the Gateway to the West, the perfect landing place for those wanting to start a new life.
Like McGee’s previous novel, 1858: A Year in the Great City of St. Louis, The Great Hope of the World finds the author again working through family memoirs and journals for source material that offers readers an intriguing tale of a family of dreamers whose experiences resonate today.
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The plot centers on Irish immigrants Fergal Dunne and Betha Tidd. As the book opens, they’ve both returned to St. Louis from Tucson following the death of their respective spouses. Settled into Tidd’s Lucas Hills home, Dunne and his sister claw and scratch their way into social acceptance and economic opportunity. Tidd struggles as a widowed single mother thrust into managing her late husband’s affairs, despite her distaste for high society. Dunne is also a single parent; his 9-year old daughter, Abigail, is suffering from mental illness. He himself is bitter and cynical after witnessing the Catholic community’s predjudices against his late African-American wife—and his biracial daughter.
McGee sets these very human stories against the epic construction of the Eads Bridge, the most visionary construction project of its era. It requires labor, oversight, and business acumen to succeed. This towering feat of human engineering is also directly intertwined with the fates of Tidd and Dunne, who have their own stakes in its success.
The Great Hope of the World is a fascinating historical novel, and its timing is impeccable. Arriving at a time when American immigrants are under increased scrutiny, it’s the perfect reminder that in these days of DACA and deportation, our city’s past looks a lot like its present.
The Great Hope of the World is available through Amazon.
