Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-83) and index.
Summary:
The Great Irish Famine of 1846-50 was one of the great disaster of the nineteenth century, and the great divide in mondern Irish history. Though the mass emigration it caused, its notoriety and impact spread far beyond Ireland. The Famine is often seen simply as Ireland's peculiar lesson in Malthusian economics, but Cormac Ó Gráda's survey suggests that a proper understanding of this disaster requires an analysis of the Irish economy before the invasion of the potato-killing fungus, Phythophthora infestans. Such an anaylsis properly highlights Irish povery and the key role of the potato. But it also points to some signs of economic progress in the pre-Famine decades, as well as the sheer statistical improbability of a series of harvest failures such as those of the late 1840s.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.