Customer Reviews

Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory (Princeton Economic History of the Western World)

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Both the tragic subject and the density of documentation, with graphs and statistics, make this a hard book to read. The Famine killed over a million people, even on the most conservative estimates. It virtually wiped out the Gaeltacht. The question that resonates today is whether fewer people would have died if Ireland in 1840 had been an independent country, with its boundaries at the salt water. You'd have to read this book at least, and maybe some others as well, to get an answer to that question.

O Grada is the foremost economic historian of the Irish famine, and I believe the book is strongest in these areas. He weaves statistics and economic data to create a compelling case for newer, nationalist perspectives of the Irish famine. Less narrative than other famine histories, it nevertheless is one of the most authoritative. Not recommended as the the first book to read about the famine, but a rock solid piece of scholarship and a very important contribution to the field.

This is a fraught subject, but O Grada handles it with both rigour and compassion.