Ireland's Great Famine and Popular Politics

Ireland’s Great Famine of 1845–52 was among the most devastating food crises in modern history. A country of some eight-and-a-half-million people lost one million to hunger and disease and another million to emigration. The essays collected here examine the full range of resistance in the Great Famine - against rent and rate collection, against the decisions of those controlling relief works, against clergymen who attributed the poor's suffering to the Almighty - and illuminate how the crisis itself transformed popular politics. Contributors include distinguished scholars of modern Ireland and emerging historians and critics. This book is essential reading for students of modern Ireland, and the global history of collective action.