- Paperback: 528 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (30 May 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 014014515X
- ISBN-13: 978-0140145151
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.2 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 111,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The Irish potato famine of the 1840s, perhaps the most appalling event of the Victorian era, killed over a million people and drove as many more to emigrate to America. It may not have been the result of deliberate government policy, yet British ‘obtuseness, short-sightedness and ignorance’ – and stubborn commitment to laissez-faire ‘solutions’ – largely caused the disaster and prevented any serious efforts to relieve suffering. The continuing impact on Anglo-Irish relations was incalculable, the immediate human cost almost inconceivable. In this vivid and disturbing book Cecil Woodham-Smith provides the definitive account.
‘A moving and terrible book. It combines great literary power with great learning. It explains much in modern Ireland – and in modern America’ D.W. Brogan.
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First Sentence
AT THE beginning of the year 1845 the state of Ireland was, as it had been for nearly seven hundred years, a source of grave anxiety to England. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
AT THE beginning of the year 1845 the state of Ireland was, as it had been for nearly seven hundred years, a source of grave anxiety to England. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...a goldie. Somewhat ponderously written (it first appeared in the 1960s), it tells the terrible story of the Famine in Ireland in the late 1840s in which a million Irish died and another million emigrated. It should be remembered that the population of Ireland in 1845 was around 8 million; the current population of Ireland (north and south) is just under 5 million. The Famine had a major effect on history, not only Irish but also world history. It led to the flood of immigrants to the USA, which has left its mark on US society to this day, and it led to the eventual loss of Ireland to the British Crown. Cecil Woodham-Smith tells the story dispassionately, but never in a condemnatory fashion. She lets the reader make up his or her own mind (or shake his or her own head in bewilderment) at things such as the refusal to feed starving people because it would only have made them dependent on charity and less inclined to work. (Such was the super-Thatcherite mentality of the day).
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
My father, who had a passion for local history, bought a copy of this book when it was first published and was much impressed. Had I read it in my formative years I might have taken a more radical stance re my view of of the long struggle of Ireland and England to come to terms with the right of each other to exist as separate nations.
One of the overwhelming messages of the book is the inability by the British officials (charged with bringing some form of relief to the starving Irish Peasantry) to comprehend the consequences of their actions and/or inactions. Re the lack of agricultural reform and of the role of Irish Landlords, a fairly balanced view is painted, though the ability by the emerging wave of nationalism to 'shoot themselves in the foot' is a little too subtly stated.
The writing style is perhaps typical of the early '60's, and at times one wishes the author had not been so painfully even handed! At times, too, the narrative would have benefited from some editing, but the book is still a compelling read.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book is an impressively researched account of the Great Hunger which covers the tragedy in minute detail. However, there is one significantly important issue which Woodham-Smith fails to answer: when the starving were selling their worldly possesions to get money for food, who was buying them? And how did those who did not die from starvation manage to survive? Were they able to obtain food from alternative sources? Did they grow their own foodstuffs? Was it only families with few children to feed who survived?
A good book but which left one wondering why this issue was not addressed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Great Hunger
Well I have only read some of this book but I will say that it arrived promptly from an Oxfam in Bournemouth, in reasonable condition, But the nice thing was it came with a... Read more
Published 12 months ago by michael toohig
Does anything really change?
This amazing book is a great way to step back from current affairs and see it in relief. The story of the famine of Ireland in the 19th century shows how the British Government... Read more
Published on 9 April 2009 by Mr. J. Carr
more images needed!!!
The book is very informative but sometimes burdens the reader with so many facts that it all becomes quite bewildering. It could have benefitted with pictures and graphs. Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2001
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