Drew Keeling's The Business of Transatlantic Migration reminds us of the centrality of ocean crossings to the economics and experience of immigration. Migratory travel was in fact the product of numerous actors, not the least of whom were transoceanic steamship companies whose viability depended upon the regular transportation of European laborers to the American job market. Keeling shows a keen interest in the process by which migrants managed the complex ordeal of Atlantic journeying, as well as the various strategies employed by shippers to turn the aspirations of those “huddled masses” into profit. The author demonstrates, ultimately, that any appreciation of the scope and patterns of human transfer between Europe and North America in the early twentieth century cannot be divorced from an understanding of the actual business of movement.

The book, over the course of eight well-researched and solidly written chapters, takes as its central theme the concept of risk management. What Keeling reveals, in several different contexts, is the sometimes overlapping and sometimes competing attempts of three central interest groups to mitigate the potential dangers associated with Atlantic crossing. The first group, the “Big Four” steamship companies, worked to attract migrant customers and protect their respective reputations as the providers of safe, reliable, and affordable passage across the sea. Here, Keeling is particularly good at showing the importance of so-called “conferences,” price-fixing and fare-sharing arrangements, between these competing corporations. The failure of these agreements at various points, such as during a disastrous 1904 “Fare War” or the Panic of 1907, only reinforced for companies the important role that cartels played in managing the risks associated with a potentially volatile marketplace.

The second group Keeling concentrates on are migrants themselves, who possessed their own strategies meant to marginalize the unknowns of transatlantic crossings. As passengers became more vocal about accommodations and the importance of comfort, steamship companies constructed vessels with superior lighting, ventilation, berthing, food, and other amenities. Prominent here was the rise of second-class cabin space, which became an increasingly significant mode of travel due to its crossover appeal for both budget-minded tourists and savvier migrants making return trips to Europe in seasonal rotation.

The third interested party in this business of transatlantic migration was states themselves. The author here delves into increasing calls from nativists and some segments of the American government for more stringent immigration controls. The risk here was that increasing immigrant populations were the purveyors of disease, crime, vice, and political unorthodoxy. Restriction seemed a natural solution, and steamship companies, all European-owned, often came under fire for their apparent willingness to dump onto American shores any person who could pay passage, no matter how objectionable the individual. Keeling's deft use of painstakingly gathered statistics, however, belies the claims of restrictionists. Steamship companies knew that a public backlash against immigration in the United States would curtail fare sales and jeopardize the profitability of an industry with high fixed costs. Therefore they worked hard to screen passengers at European embarkation points and avoid diplomatic imbroglios. Compliance ensured general prosperity for these companies until the outbreak of World War I. With transatlantic lines sagging by 1918, US immigration restrictions passed in 1924 put a final nail in their coffin. The transit industry that survived was dedicated to tourist travel rather than the transfer of immigrants.

Throughout the entire book, Keeling proves remarkably deft at demonstrating the interlocking influence of many interest groups participating in this largest of migrations in human history. The only complaint one might make is Keeling's failure to cover what could be considered the fourth “group” crucial to this business history of migration, namely wage-earning employees working either in the service of steamship companies or in allied trades. Surely one of the risks facing corporations, migrants, and home governments was the disposition of laborers sweating to construct, operate, and provision these increasingly elaborate vessels. Yet the subject of labor relations receives no mention. This seems like a real oversight considering that Keeling's own evidence points to the instrumentality of working-class insurgency to the success (or failure) of transatlantic enterprise. For example, he tells the story of one migrant family held over in Liverpool circa 1911 while local police battled dockside workers striking for higher wages. The delay is his focus, not the strike itself, and yet such work stoppages were common to the era. The years between 1900 and 1914 were crucial to the business of transatlantic migration, as Keeling makes clear. Yet recent work by historians such as Leon Fink suggests that these were also critical years in the unionization of seafarers and other maritime workers, both in Great Britain and beyond. All of this – unions, worker unrest, the corporate and government response, the attitude of migrants towards labor disputes – could undoubtedly factor into a slightly more comprehensive history of Keeling's subject.

But this quibble is dwarfed by the magnitude of Keeling's achievement. The author looks upon immigration history with fresh eyes, while his research, taking place in multiple archives in Europe and the United States, suggests the virtues of a transnational approach to the past. Ultimately, Keeling presents a model for scholars attempting to blend quantitative and narrative history that should stand for years to come.