The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 is a book by John Canon O'Rourke. It details the famine that hit Ireland also known as "The Great Hunger", a period of mass starvation and disease.
A compelling new look at one of the worst disasters to strike humankind--the Great Irish Potato Famine--conveyed as lyrical narrative history from the acclaimed author of "The Great Mortality."
The Irish famine of the 1840s is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the United Kingdom's history. Within six years of the arrival of the potato blight in Ireland in 1845, more than a quarter of its residents had unexpectedly died or emigrated. Its population has not yet fully recovered since. Historians have struggled to explain why the British government decided to shut down its centrally organised relief efforts in 1847, long before the famine ended. Some have blamed the laissez-faire attitudes of the time for an inadequate response by the British government; others have alleged purposeful neglect and genocide. In contrast, this book uncovers a hidden narrative of the crisis, which links policy failure in Ireland to financial and political instability in Great Britain. More important than a laissez-faire ideology in hindering relief efforts for Ireland were the British government's lack of a Parliamentary majority from 1846, the financial crises of 1847, and a battle of ideas over monetary policy between proponents and opponents of financial orthodoxy. The high death toll in Ireland resulted from the British government's plans for intervention going awry, rather than being prematurely cancelled because of laissez-faire. This book is essential reading for scholars, students and anyone interested in Anglo-Irish relations, the history of financial crises, and why humanitarian-relief efforts can go wrong even with good intentions.
This book explores the benefits and challenges of transnational history for the study of modern Ireland. In recent years the word "transnational" has become more and more conspicuous in history writing across the globe, with scholars seeking to move beyond national and local frameworks when investigating the past. Yet transnational approaches remain rare in Irish historical scholarship. This book argues that the broader contexts and scales associated with transnational history are ideally suited to open up new questions on many themes of critical importance to Ireland’s past and present. They also provide an important means of challenging ideas of Irish exceptionalism. The chapters included here open up new perspectives on central debates and events in Irish history. They illuminate numerous transnational lives, follow flows and ties across Irish borders, and trace networks and links with Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Australia and the British Empire. This book provides specialists and students with examples of different concepts and ways of doing transnational history. Non-specialists will be interested in the new perspectives offered here on a rich variety of topics, particularly the two major events in modern Irish history, the Great Irish Famine and the 1916 Rising.
On account of its remarkable reach as well as its variety of schemes and features, migration in the Victorian era is a paramount chapter of the history of worldwide migrations and diasporas. Indeed, Victorian Britain was both a land of emigration and immigration. International Migrations in the Victorian Era covers a wide range of case studies to unveil the complexity of transnational circulations and connections in the 19th century. Combining micro- and macro-studies, this volume looks into the history of the British Empire, 19th century international migration networks, as well as the causes and consequences of Victorian migrations and how technological, social, political, and cultural transformations, mainly initiated by the Industrial Revolution, considerably impacted on people’s movements. It presents a history of migration grounded on people, structural forces and migration processes that bound societies together. Rather than focussing on distinct territorial units, International Migrations in the Victorian Era balances different scales of analysis: individual, local, regional, national and transnational. Contributors are: Rebecca Bates, Sally Brooke Cameron, Milosz K. Cybowski, Nicole Davis, Anne-Catherine De Bouvier, Claire Deligny, Elizabeth Dillenburg, Nicolas Garnier, Trevor Harris, Kathrin Levitan, Véronique Molinari, Ipshita Nath, Jude Piesse, Daniel Renshaw, Eric Richards, Sue Silberberg, Ben Szreter, Géraldine Vaughan, Briony Wickes, Rhiannon Heledd Williams.