Rot : a history of the Irish Famine
Scanlan, Padraic X.2025
Book
In the 1800s, as Britain became the world's most powerful industrial empire, Ireland starved. The Great Famine fractured long-held assumptions about political economy and 'civilisation', threatening disorder in Britain. Ireland was a laboratory for empire, shaping British ideas about colonisation, population, ecology and work. In Rot, Padraic Scanlan reinterprets the history of this time and the result is a revelatory account of Ireland's Great Famine. In the first half of the nineteenth century, nowhere in Europe - or the world - did the working poor depend as completely on potatoes as in Ireland. To many British observers, potatoes were evidence of a lack of modernity among the Irish. However, Ireland before the famine more closely resembled capitalism's future than its past. While poverty before and during the Great Famine was often blamed on Irish backwardness, it did in fact stem from the British Empire's embrace of modern capitalism. Uncovering the disaster's roots in Britain's deep imperial faith in markets and capitalism, Rot reshapes our understanding of the Famine and its tragic legacy.
Main title:
Rot : a history of the Irish Famine / Padraic X. Scanlan.
Author:
Scanlan, Padraic X., author
Imprint:
London : Robinson, 2025.©2025
Collation:
vii, 340 pages ; 24 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9781472146878 (hbk)9781472146885 (trade paperback)9781472146885 (paperback)9781472146878 (hardback)
Dewey class:
941.7081
Language:
English
Subject:
Famines -- Ireland -- History -- 19th centuryImperialism -- Economic aspects -- Great Britain -- HistoryIreland -- History -- Famine, 1845-1852Ireland -- Social conditions -- 19th centuryIreland -- Economic conditions -- 19th centuryGreat Britain -- Colonies -- Administration -- History -- 19th century
BRN:
828887
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kathleen Syme Carlton | -History | HISTORY 941.7081 SCAN | On loan - Due: 23 Jul 2026 |
| narrm ngarrgu Library and Family Services | -History | HISTORY 941.7081 SCAN | Available |