The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Faded spine
A landmark work of narrative history, The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849 chronicles one of the most catastrophic humanitarian disasters of the nineteenth century — the Irish Famine — with meticulous scholarship and searing moral clarity. Cecil Woodham-Smith uncovers the devastating interplay of blight, colonial policy, and political indifference that led to the deaths of over one million people and the emigration of millions more, fundamentally reshaping Ireland and its diaspora forever. Drawing on a vast range of primary sources, the account presents the human cost of the famine not as an abstraction but as a lived tragedy, rendered through the stories of landlords, peasants, relief workers, and government officials alike. Woodham-Smith argues with unflinching authority that the catastrophe was not merely a natural disaster but was profoundly worsened by the failures — and at times the callousness — of British administration. Written with the propulsive urgency of the finest narrative nonfiction, this definitive study remains essential reading for anyone seeking to understand modern Irish history and the enduring wounds left by famine and empire.
Author: Cecil Woodham-Smith
Format: Hardback
Published: 1980, Hamish Hamilton
Genre: British & Irish history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Faded spine
A landmark work of narrative history, The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849 chronicles one of the most catastrophic humanitarian disasters of the nineteenth century — the Irish Famine — with meticulous scholarship and searing moral clarity. Cecil Woodham-Smith uncovers the devastating interplay of blight, colonial policy, and political indifference that led to the deaths of over one million people and the emigration of millions more, fundamentally reshaping Ireland and its diaspora forever. Drawing on a vast range of primary sources, the account presents the human cost of the famine not as an abstraction but as a lived tragedy, rendered through the stories of landlords, peasants, relief workers, and government officials alike. Woodham-Smith argues with unflinching authority that the catastrophe was not merely a natural disaster but was profoundly worsened by the failures — and at times the callousness — of British administration. Written with the propulsive urgency of the finest narrative nonfiction, this definitive study remains essential reading for anyone seeking to understand modern Irish history and the enduring wounds left by famine and empire.