Customer Reviews

The Irish Famine

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The authors have compiled a representative sample of documents concerning the Irish Famine. Not only do you get actual reports of the disease and death that is taking effect, but you also get some British authorities discounting the nature and effects of the famine and some blaming the victims for the famine. This is amazing stuff, as you can see the 19th century mind at work saying the famine is a way to combine the small holdings of the poor farmers together. In the process, millions died and millions more emigrated to countries like Canada, the United States, and Australia.

This is an OK read. The material is written in 19th century language and the reader needs to compensate for this. Otherwise, you can see the bureaucratic nature of the British Empire as it tries to figure out and fight the famine.

While the authors may be good historians and they might even be good authors, this volume doesn't seem to present any of their own work. I'm sure that their work was work, insofar as they took the time to find these documents. But it doesn't seem that there is any value added. Some of the documents, as individual documents, are interesting. But there is no flow, no structure, that adds to my understanding of the whole picture of the famine years. In sum, this book didn't give me much.